Superlative Adjectives in English: The -est and The Most
Superlative adjectives let you pick out the top of a group: the biggest, the best, the most important. For short adjectives, add -est and put 'the' in front, as in "He is the tallest in the class." For longer adjectives, use 'the most' before the word, as in "It's the most beautiful city." A few are irregular and must be memorized: "This is the best day" uses best (not 'the goodest'), and the opposite is the worst. Don't drop 'the,' and never combine both forms, so avoid 'the most tallest' or 'the expensivest.'
Examples
- He is the tallest in the class. he has the greatest height in the class
- It's the most beautiful city. the city ranks first for beauty
- This is the best day. the top-ranked day
The full lesson
Everything in the video, in text.
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Drop one tiny word and She is the tallest turns into something no native speaker would ever say.
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A superlative picks out the top of a group — the biggest, the best, the most important. In English there are just two ways to build one.
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Short adjectives add -est. Longer ones keep their shape and put the most in front. And both forms start with the, because you're pointing at one specific winner.
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Start short. Tall is one syllable, so just add -est, with the. He is the tallest in the class.
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Watch the spelling. A short adjective ending in -y flips to -i before -est. Today was the easiest test.
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Now the long side. Expensive has three syllables, so we don't touch it — we add the most before it. It's the most expensive phone.
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Same pattern for any long adjective. Beautiful stays whole, and the most does the work. It's the most beautiful city.
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Two adjectives break the rules and you'll use them every day. Good becomes the best, and bad becomes the worst. Just memorize these. This is the best day.
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And its opposite. That was the worst movie.
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Now the two big traps. Never combine the forms. It's the tallest, not the most tallest — pick one, never both.
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And don't force -est onto a long adjective. There's no expensivest — long words always take the most.
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So remember: short adjectives take the -est, long ones take the most, good and bad become the best and the worst — and the is almost always there.