Intermediate English · 18 min
Superlatives
The point
The plus -est is the top of a short adjective. The most is the top of a long one. Good becomes the best. Bad becomes the worst. Do not join most and -est.
Form and use
A superlative picks the top or the bottom of a group. A short adjective takes the plus -est: the biggest, the smallest, the latest. A long adjective takes the most: the most useful, the most expensive. The is part of the form. Biggest alone, with no the, is incomplete when you mean the top of a group.
Read the full set. This is the biggest room. This is the smallest desk. This is the most useful note. This is the most expensive plan. This is the best result. This is the worst result. This is the least useful copy. She is the best in the office. This is the oldest of the three.
Good becomes the best. Bad becomes the worst. Do not write the goodest, the most good, the baddest, or the most bad. The least is the bottom of a long adjective: the least useful. Do not stack most onto -est. The most biggest is wrong because biggest already means the top. One marker is enough.
Say where the group sits. In plus a place: the best in the office, the biggest in the building. Of plus a group: the oldest of the three, the most useful of these notes. Do not swap them carelessly. In names the area. Of names the set you are comparing. The superlative still needs the before -est or most.
Don't translate it like this
Don't say
This is the most biggest.
Say
This is the biggest.
이것이 가장 큽니다.
Biggest already means the most big.
Short examples
This is the biggest room.
이것이 가장 큰 방입니다.
This is the most useful note.
이것이 가장 유용한 메모입니다.
This is the smallest desk in the room.
이것이 방에서 가장 작은 책상입니다.
That plan is the most expensive of the four.
그 계획이 넷 중에서 가장 비쌉니다.
She wrote the best note of the day.
그녀가 그날 가장 좋은 메모를 썼습니다.
Monday was the worst day of the week.
월요일이 그 주에서 가장 나쁜 날이었습니다.
This is the least useful copy.
이것이 가장 쓸모없는 사본입니다.
He is the oldest of the three.
그가 셋 중에서 가장 나이가 많습니다.
This office is the quietest in the building.
이 사무실이 건물에서 가장 조용합니다.
The latest train leaves at ten.
가장 늦은 기차는 열 시에 떠납니다.
Questions
Every question has to be right to close this point.
Answer every question, then check.