How to use Superlative Adjectives Best Greatest Most Basic English Grammar
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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this
episode I’m going to talk about
superlatives superlatives are words that
we use to express the extreme of
something or the highest degree of
something so I’m going to talk about
irregular superlatives and I’m going to
talk about how to make the regular
superlative forms four different words
so let’s get started okay so as I just
said a superlative is a word that
expresses the extreme of something or
the highest degree of something so a few
common examples of this are for example
the words best and worst so best is the
superlative the most extreme form of the
adjective good so if we say something is
good but we want to express that it is
like the top of something we can use the
word best to describe that for example
your best friend is the friend that you
have the closest relationship with
they’re a good friend but your top
friend is your best friend the opposite
though is worst so worst is the
superlative form of bad so again
something that is bad the thing that
exhibits the the highest degree of bad
qualities we use the word worst to
describe so I am my worst nightmare for
example or the worst day for example we
also see a different pattern where we
use the word most before an adjective so
here I have most fun fun is an irregular
adjectives so are good and bad but we
see here with the word fun that most can
be placed before an adjective to create
the superlative form so in this case
most fun describes an activity or
something that you feel is very very fun
and has like the highest level of fun so
that was the most fun day I’ve ever had
or that was the most fun barbeque for
example I’ve ever had or that barbecue
was the most fun I’ve ever had I don’t
know there are different ways to say
these things but we’re going to look at
how to make the regular
their forms as well so as I said good
bad and fun are examples of irregular
adjectives so the superlative forms here
don’t necessarily follow the rules I’m
going to explain but these are very
common so please keep them in mind okay
before we continue on in this lesson I’m
going to talk about syllables syllables
if you don’t remember syllables are like
the beat of a word so for example in a
word like beautiful there are three
beats in the word beyou two full three
syllables so please keep in mind the
number of beats in a word when you’re
trying to decide how to make the
superlative form of a word so I want to
begin with one syllable adjectives these
are very short adjectives so I have a
big small fat tall and short very simple
adjectives to make the superlative form
with a one syllable adjectives we add
est to the end here so for example big
becomes biggest small becomes smallest
fat becomes fattest tall becomes tallest
and short becomes shortest so we simply
add est to the end of the word to make
the superlative form for a one syllable
adjectives but you might notice here
some of these especially biggest and
fattest the spelling changes a little
bit when we make the superlative form so
kind of a rule for you to remember when
you’re spelling this doesn’t really
affect pronunciation but if you’re
writing if the word ends in a single
consonant plus a vowel plus a single
consonant double the last consonant when
you’re writing so here we see b.i.g
single consonant vowel single consonant
so we need to double the last consonant
here in this case it’s a G big becomes
biggest with two Gs
the same thing is in fat with the change
to fattest so single consonant vowel
single consonant we therefore need to
double the consonants here in the
spelling of fattest so please keep this
in mind for writing the pronunciation
stays the same fattest
biggest there’s no like double consonant
sound but please keep this in mind for
your emails or for your text messages
for example okay let’s continue on to
two syllable adjectives two syllable
adjectives are a little bit tricky
because maybe there are some that don’t
always follow the same rule let’s look
at a few examples I have pretty little
handsome nervous and worried so for two
syllable adjectives will either add est
as we did over here with one syllable
adjectives or we might use most before
the adjective so this is something that
will come with practice and with for
example reading and doing listening to
hear which one’s native speakers most
commonly used so for example with the
word handsome I have handsomest and most
handsome you might hear both in some
cases it could depend on the region that
you’re in the kind of English that is
spoken there so just listen for what’s
around you and if you try to use one of
these if you’d like to use one of these
and you’re not sure which form to use
try most using most and if it doesn’t
work out then you’ll know to use the est
form instead but let’s take a look there
a couple of other points I want to
mention here first when you are using an
adjective that ends in Y in this case I
have pretty the spelling will change
with this as well so the Y at the end of
the adjective will be removed will drop
the the Y at the end and we’ll add iest
so pretty the pronunciation doesn’t
change but the spelling does pretty it
becomes prettiest here so the Y changes
to an I in spelling here with the
adjective little there’s no change we
just add est as I said with handsome
here I’ve added est or I’ve added most
before the adjective to in the last two
I have nervous and worried so for these
adjectives it’s better to use most most
the most nervous person or the most
worried person in the room for example
it sounds a little strange to say
nervous
it’s a bit difficult to pronounce so go
with most in these cases alright
so please keep this in mind try using
most before the adjective if you’re ever
not sure okay let’s now go to three
syllable adjectives so near the
beginning of this lesson I gave the
example of beautiful beautiful three
syllables
each of these will follow this same rule
three syllable adjectives we need to use
most in front of the adjective so
exciting becomes most exciting beautiful
becomes most beautiful horrible most
horrible nutritious most nutritious and
expensive most expensiv so please just
add most before the adjective and then
that will make the superlative form for
these long adjectives so these are the
basic rules for how to make the
superlative form one thing to be careful
of though I have heard some people use
the superlative form correctly however
they use most along with it so for
example most biggest or most smallest
for example so don’t combine them if you
use the est you do not need to use most
so most biggest is incorrect please use
only biggest so there’s only one change
that needs to happen to the adjective
please be careful all right if you have
any questions please let us know in the
comment section for this video I hope it
was useful for you if you’d like to try
out a superlative form or if you have a
question about how to make the
superlative form of an adjective please
check it out or send it to us in the
comments and maybe we can help each
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this lesson and I will see you again
soon
you
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