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5.01: Il superlativo relativo

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    The relative superlative

    When you say a song is the most beautiful of all, or a boy is the nicest in the class, or the verb essere isthe most difficult of all verbs, then you are using the relative superlative. See how it works in Italian:

    I treni Frecciarossa sono i più veloci di tutti. [Frecciarossa trains are the fastest trains of all.]

    I treni regionali sono i meno veloci di tutti. [Regional trains are the slowest trains of all.]

    To specify what or who is the fastest, the least practical, etc. in a group or category, Italians use the preposition di. The superlative can be formed in a few ways:

    definite article noun più / meno + adjective di + a group, the world, all, etc…
    il treno più veloce di tutti
    i treni più veloci di tutti
    la macchina meno veloce di tutte
    le macchine meno veloci di tutte
    definite article più / meno + adjective di + a group, the world, all, etc…
    il più veloce di tutti
    i più veloci di tutti
    la meno veloce di tutte
    le meno veloci di tutte

    Only with short adjectives that can precede the noun, i.e. bello, brutto, vecchio, giovane, grande, piccolo, you can have the following word order:

    definite article più + short adjective noun di + a group, the world, all, etc…
    il più bel momento del viaggio
    i più bei momenti del viaggio
    la più bella passeggiata del viaggio
    le più belle passeggiate del viaggio

    You can also say tra or fra [among] instead of di when referring to a plural noun, such as, La British Airlines è la compagnia che ha più voli fra tutte le compagnie aeree.  If the noun is singular, then use di:  La Vespa è lo scooter più bello del mondo.

    There is no form like -est in Italian (Evviva! One less thing to learn.)

    Irregular superlative forms

    The irregular adjectives in the superlative form are the same as those in the comparative form, with the addition of the definite articles:

    Adjectives Irregular superlative adjectives
    buono good il / la migliore; i / le migliori the best
    cattivo/brutto bad il / la peggiore; i / le peggiori the worst
    grande big il / la maggiore; i / le maggiori the biggest / oldest
    piccolo small il / la minore; i / le minori the smallest / youngest

    The superlative and comparative forms of irregular adverbs are the same:

    Adverbs Irregular superlative adverbs
    bene well meglio best
    male badly peggio worst

    Consider the examples:

    • Questa bicicletta è migliore di quella.   (comparative)
    • Questa bicicletta è la migliore!   (superlative)
    • Paolo guida peggio di me.   (comparative)
    • Paolo guida peggio di tutti!   (superlative)

    This page titled 5.01: Il superlativo relativo is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Daniel Leisawitz & Daniela Viale via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.