Superlatives

You just finished doing comparatives You just finished doing comparatives. Now you’re going to do superlatives. In English, we have what we call the positive form, tall gorgeous the comparative form, taller more gorgeous and the superlative form. tallest most gorgeous Spanish doesn’t have that, exactly, but if you just think of “más” as meaning both “more” AND “most,” both the comparative and superlative are very similar to English.

The comparative is for when you’re talking about two people or things: Addison is more beautiful than Meredith. Addison es más hermosa que Meredith. The superlative is for when you’re talking about three or more people or things: Addison is the most beautiful of all. Addison es la más hermosa de todas.

As you can see, if you use “most” rather than “-est” (which, like “-er,” doesn’t exist in Spanish), the word order is identical to English: Addison is the most beautiful of all. Addison es la más hermosa de todas. However, you need to note that if you put a noun in the superlative expression, it will come BEFORE “más + adjective.” Addison is the most beautiful woman of all. Addison es la mujer más hermosa de todas. But that should be no surprise, since, as you learned in chapter 2, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe: noun adjective Addison es una mujer hermosa.

OK, one more thing. You don’t have a problem with Addison es la más hermosa de todas. But what about Addison es la más hermosa del mundo. Literally, that translates Addison is the most beautiful OF the world. We, of course, would say Addison is the most beautiful IN the world.

But in Spanish, you have to say “de”: Juan es el hombre más alto de la ciudad. Juan is the tallest man in the city. Elisa es la más bonita de la clase. Elisa is the prettiest in the class. Antonio y Carlos son los más gordos de Georgia. Antonio and Carlos are the fattest in Georgia.

So there are three (little) things that make the superlative in Spanish different from the superlative in English: 1. The fact that you always have to use “most” and not something like “-est” that you can put on the end of the adjective: Bill Gates es el más rico de nuestro país. Bill Gates is the richest in our country. The fact that you have to put the noun BEFORE “más + adjective”: Bill Gates es el hombre más rico de nuestro país. Bill Gates is the richest man in our country. The fact that you have to say “de” in Spanish where we usually say “in” in English:

Watch out for the irregulars! Remember mejor, peor, mayor, menor? Since they mean better, worse, older, younger, they also mean best, worst, oldest, youngest. Juan es el mejor estudiante de la clase. Juan is the best student in the class. Juan es el peor estudiante de la clase. Juan is the worst student in the class. Juan es el mayor estudiante de la clase. Juan is the oldest student in the class. Juan es el menor estudiante de la clase. Juan is the youngest student in the class.