pesar más que
verbCEFR B2
What does “pesar más que” mean in English?
to outweigh
to outweigh (los beneficios pesan más que los riesgos — asserting that one set of considerations is heavier or more significant than another in a trade-off)
Example sentences
En este caso, los beneficios económicos pesan más que los riesgos medioambientales según los promotores del proyecto.
In this case, the economic benefits outweigh the environmental risks according to the project's proponents.
Podría argumentarse que las desventajas pesan más que las ventajas, si se consideran los efectos a largo plazo.
It could be argued that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, if long-term effects are considered.
How to use it
'Pesar más que' means 'to outweigh', 'to carry more weight than'. It is the comparative judgement verb for trade-off arguments: 'los beneficios pesan más que los costes' (the benefits outweigh the costs). The frame is always comparative: 'A pesa más que B'. It is a close functional parallel to 'superar a' in a deliberative sense, but pesar más que is specifically about argumentative weight or importance, not quantity. It collocates strongly with 'los riesgos', 'las ventajas', 'los beneficios', 'las desventajas'. Register: neutral, common in debate and policy analysis.
Common mistake
Pesar más que is always comparative — it needs both sides explicitly. Don't use it as a standalone claim: 'los riesgos pesan más' (without 'que X') is incomplete. English 'outweigh' maps exactly; the temptation is to use '*ser más importante que' which is grammatical but lacks the deliberative, scales-metaphor force of pesar más que in formal debate.