Adjectives - Superlative - the best lesson

This lesson is on superlative adjectives.

we use superlative adjectives to compare three or more items in several different ways in which we form the superlative adjective.

and if the context is clear we often omit the group when talking about superlatives.

So how do we form this.

Well for short adjectives of only one or two syllables we add E S T or s t to the end of the adjective if the word ends in a Y.

We replace the Y with an eye before adding Yes T and adjectives that end in a vowel plus a single consonant often double the continent when forming a superlative we’ll look at examples of all of these.

Now the film is long the film is the longest one ever made because we’re talking about only one.

We usually use the in front of a superlative so it’s the longest Sandra is pale Sandra is the playlist one on the beach and because pale ends in an e.

We only add an s t to form a superlative.

We don’t add another e to it.

John is funny.

John is the funniest person I know because funny ends in a Y.

We replace the Y with an eye before forming this superlative as we see here that elephant is big is the biggest elephant I have ever seen.

And this is an example where we have a vowel and a single consonant and when we form a superlative we make two G’s out of beak to form biggest.

Simile with fat has two teeth to form fattest and so on.

For longer adjectives with three or more syllables adding e s t would be unwieldy so we had most in front of the adjective to form the superlative the dress is beautiful.

The dress is the most beautiful of them all well this suit is expensive.

This suit is the most expensive I have ever bought for try to say the dress the beautiful list or the expensive wrist.

It’s unwieldy.

That’s why we use most in front of the adjective to form a superlative and of course this is English so there are some irregularities with superlative adjectives so superlative of good is best as Sarah is good at tennis centre is the best in the tennis club superlative of bad is worst.

So Jim is bad at football and Jim is the worst in the team superb to far the farthest or furthest.

Some people use him interchangeably.

If you really wanted a distinction you could say that farthest is used for measurable distances and furthest is used for more abstract concepts so Tony can run far.

TONY ran the furthest.

and the superlative of Little is least Jenny a little food in the evening.

Jenny a the least food in even and the superlative of much and many is most and if the context is clear we can omit the group when we’re comparing to all the brothers are fast runners Tony is the fastest implied of the brothers.

But because it’s clear we’re talking about the brothers we don’t need to repeat it again when we’re making the comparison we all drank at the same time Lenny drank the quickest so if you imagine this.

One two three go and I’ll try and drink the bear as quickly as possible.

And Lenny was the one who finished first.

So we all drank at the same time Lenny drank the quickest of us.

We don’t need it again and the whole team played well.

Paul played the best in this case with the best of the team so we don’t need to repeat the team is it clear from the contact that that is what we’re talking about.