11.11: El superlativo

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Objetivos

Use superlative expressions

“Los yoghurts más frescos de Chile.”

The superlative is used to make a comparison between multiple items and it is used to stress a relationship of superiority between one item and the rest. In English, to form a superlative we usually add “-est” to an adjective. In Spanish, however, we’re going to start with an article and add “más” / “menos” before adjective to create the superlative.

el/la/los/las + (noun) + más/menos + (adjective) + de…

Some adjectives have irregular comparative forms which you saw when discussing comparisons of inequality. When applied to the superlative constructions they retain their irregular forms:

definite article + irregular comparative form + de…

bueno → el mejor (the best)
malo → el peor (the worst)
grande → el mayor (the oldest – people)
pequeño → el menor (the youngest – people)

Cuando los colegas coreanos salen a comer, el mayor paga. (When Korean colleagues go out to eat, the oldest pays.)
Muchos europeos son trilingües, pero en general los africanos son los más multilingües del mundo. (Many Europeans are trilingual, but in general Africans are the most multilingual in the world.)

Gramu00e1tica: El superlativo. Authored by: SUNY Oneonta with Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution

Los yoghurts mas frescos. Authored by: Brigeth Rivera . License: CC BY: Attribution