What Are Superlatives in Grammar?
Do you ever compare three or more things? If so, it's probable you used a superlative (perhaps without even knowing it).
Superlatives vs. comparatives vs. base adjectives
Read these sentences:
Base adjective: Colin is smart.
Comparative: Colin is smarter than Owen.
Superlative: Colin is the smartest person I know.
What’s the difference between each statement?
The first sentence simply tells us that Colin possess the trait of being smart, but without specifying to what degree or comparing with anyone else. This is the simple form of the adjective, (also called a base adjective). It’s the spelling of the word that appears when we go to look it up in the dictionary.
The second sentence tells us that Colin has more of the quality of smart-ness compared to Owen. This is the comparative form of an adjective, which compares two things (people, places, things) and says which has “more” or “less” of that quality. Comparative adjectives will either add “-er” or follow “more”.
The third sentence uses the superlative form and describes the greatest or least in quantity, extent, or degree of a trait/adjective, relative to all else. We use superlatives when we want to compare more than two things, and attribute something as possessing a trait to the greatest possible extent or degree. Superlative adjectives will typically end in “-est”, or follow the adverb “most”. Irregular comparative and superlative forms use their own rules (this is laid out below).
Formation of superlatives
Single-syllable adjectives
Single-syllable adjectives add –est to form a superlative:
cool ➜ coolest
small ➜ smallest
big ➜ biggest
great ➜ greatest
If the adjective already ends in “e”, just add “-st”:
large ➜ largest
cute ➜ cutest
late ➜ latest
Single-syllable adjectives with a consonant–vowel–consonant pattern, double the last consonant and add –est:
big ➜ biggest
hot ➜ hottest
wet ➜ wettest
One or two syllables ending with –y
Adjectives with one or two syllables (that end in y) replace y with i and add –est:
lazy ➜ laziest
silly ➜ silliest
happy ➜ happiest
Two-syllables ending in –er, –ow, or –le
Two syllable adjectives that end in –er, –ow, or –le add –est without changing its initial spelling. Two-syllable adjectives that end in –le just add –st (we do not add a second e).
clever ➜ cleverest
shallow ➜ shallowest
simple ➜ simplest
Longer adjectives follow “most”
Two-syllable adjectives that don’t end in “y”, and adjectives with three or more syllables follow “most”. E.g.:
most careful
most boring
most patient
Irregular adjectives
Most comparative and superlative adjectives add -er/-est or use more/most, as we can see from the formation of superlatives above. Nevertheless, similar to how verbs and nouns have regular and irregular forms, so do adjectives.
These adjectives do not add “er”/ “est”, nor do they follow “more” / “most”; instead, they use their own modification for both the comparative and superlative forms:
good ➜ better ➜ best
bad ➜ worse ➜ worst
little ➜ less ➜ least
much➜ more ➜ most
far➜ further/farther ➜ furthest/farthest
When it comes to irregular adjectives, we simply have to memorize their “irregular” forms, and learn which is the correct comparative or superlative spelling.