Sequence 2 — Me, My Personality and Life Experiences › Language form
The superlative with short and long adjectives
- التمييز بين النعت القصير والنعت الطويل، وتحديد صيغة التفضيل الموافقة لكلّ منهما
- بناء صيغة التفضيل العليا : the + adjective + -est وthe most + adjective
- حفظ الشواذّ الثلاثة : good ⟹ the best · bad ⟹ the worst · far ⟹ the farthest
- التعبير عن التفضيل الأدنى بـthe least + adjective
- التمييز بين المقارنة (شيئان) والتفضيل (ثلاثة فأكثر)، واختيار in أو of بعدها
- الفرق بين النعت القصير والنعت الطويل بعدد المقاطع
- المقارنة بالتفضيل : -er than وmore … than
- تصريف to be في المضارع والماضي
Presentation
People eat different foods in different places. Let's take the example of Nepal. Nepal has no sea. Most people in Nepal are farmers. They grow grains, fruits, and other crops in the lowlands. The temperatures are very warm there. Rice and corn grow in terraced fields in the cooler hill regions. Potatoes and barley are the staple, or chief crops at higher elevations. Temperatures are the coolest there. The Nepalese raise goats, cattle and yaks for dairy produce. They eat meat only on special occasions. Religious rules affect which meats people in Nepal eat: Hindus, who make up more than 80 percent of the population, do not eat beef, and Muslims do not eat pork.
What does this text tell you before you read any rule?What does this text tell you before you read any rule?ماذا يعلّمك هذا النصّ قبل أن تقرأ القاعدة ؟
- There are three levels in one paragraph, not two: the lowlands are warm, the hill regions are cooler, and the high elevations are the coolest. The text climbs a mountain and the adjective climbs with it.
- Cooler needs a second thing to be cooler than. The coolest does not: it puts one place at the top of the whole group — every region of Nepal at once.
- And that is why the little word the appears. There can be several cooler places; there is only one coolest. The is the word that says “only one”.
- Look at the ending too: cool ⟹ cooler ⟹ the coolest. The adjective is short, so English simply adds letters to it. It does not add a word.
⟹ Two forms, two jobs. The comparative puts one thing beside another. The superlative puts one thing above all the others. The rule below only says how to build the second one — and everything depends on the length of the adjective.
| Kind of adjective | How to build the superlative | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Short — one syllable: cool, fast, long, high | the + adjective + -est | Temperatures are the coolest there. |
| Short in -y — easy, happy, dry | the + adjective, y becomes i, + -est | It is the easiest dish to prepare. |
| Long — two syllables or more: convenient, amazing, probable | the most + adjective, unchanged | the most convenient restaurant in London |
| Irregular — good, bad, far | learn them, they follow nothing | I've got the best mark in the class. |
The other end of the scale
A writer makes four predictions about robots and orders them from the most probable to the least probable: 1. They will be able to invent robot cooks. 2. They may be able to make robot maids. 3. They might even invent robot mechanics. 4. They won't be able to become the rivals of man. ⟹ Now write two sentences: one that names prediction 1, and one that names prediction 3, using a superlative each time.
The answers, and the rule behind themThe answers, and the rule behind themالأجوبة، والقاعدة التي وراءها.
Prediction 1 is the most probable of the four. Prediction 3 is the least probable of the four. Both sentences use the same adjective, probable, and neither of them changes it. Only the word in front has moved from most to least.
⚠️ Look at the last one: the maximum age. English also has words that are superlatives all by themselves — maximum, minimum, top, first, last. They already name an extreme — the most or the least —, so they never take -est and never take most.
Practice
a. Jack's is (convenient) restaurant in London. b. Its service is (fast) in the city. c. In Nepal, the high elevations are (cool) place of all. d. She has got (good) mark in the class. e. Of the four predictions, that one is (probable) — nobody believes it.
Answers to Exercise 1Answers to Exercise 1
| Answer | Why | |
|---|---|---|
| a | Jack's is the most convenient restaurant in London. | convenient is long ⟹ the most + adjective |
| b | Its service is the fastest in the city. | fast is short ⟹ the + adjective + -est |
| c | The high elevations are the coolest place of all. | cool is short; “of all” names the group |
| d | She has got the best mark in the class. | good is irregular ⟹ the best, and in for a group |
| e | That one is the least probable. | the bottom of the group ⟹ the least + adjective |
Use a superlative in every answer, and add in or of with the group you are comparing. a. Which season do you like the most? (the four seasons) b. Which subject is the easiest for you? (all your subjects) c. Which is the longest month of the year, and which is the shortest? d. Who runs the fastest in your class?
Answers to Exercise 2Answers to Exercise 2
- Summer is the season I like the most of the four. — or: “Winter is the least pleasant season of the year for me.”
- English is the easiest subject of all for me.
- June has the longest days of the year, and February is the shortest month.
- Ron runs the fastest in the class — he runs faster than anyone else.
⭐ Read the last answer twice. It says the same thing in two ways: “the fastest in the class” is a superlative, “faster than anyone else” is a comparative. English lets you climb to the top by either staircase — choose the one that fits your sentence.
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