Language/French/Grammar/Superlative-forms-of-adjectives

Superlative forms of adjectives

In English, adjectives can be used to describe the best or worst of something by adding '-est' or putting 'most' or 'least' in front of them: 'biggest', 'lightest, 'most dangerous', 'least interesting'. These are superlative forms of adjectives.

In French the superlative forms of adjectives are created by putting the definite article - le, la, les - in front of the comparative forms: la plus grande voiture 'the biggest car', la plus forte odeur 'the strongest smell'. When adjectives follow the noun, this means that there are two definite articles, one before the noun and one before the comparative form of the adjective: la voiture la plus puissante 'the most powerful car', les virages les plus dangereux 'the most dangerous bends'. Note that the article agrees in gender and number with the noun:

• C'était le plus grand joueur de tous

He was the greatest player of all

• Elle est la moins ambitieuse de sa famille

She is the least ambitious in her family

• C'est la route la plus dangereuse de la région

It's the most dangerous road in the region

NB: 'in' after superlative adjectives is usually de: la route la plus dangereuse de la région, la moins malade de sa famille. There are three irregular superlative forms of adjectives which are used productively in French:

• le/la/les meilleur(e)(s)

the best (superlative of bon 'good')

• le/la/les pire(s)

the worst (superlative of mauvais 'bad')

• le/la/les moindre(s)

the least (superlative of petit 'small')

Use of meilleur and pire:

• Notre chef de cuisine est le meilleur de la ville

Our chef is the best in town

• Elle porte les meilleurs vêtements

She wears the best clothes

• Cette solution est la pire des trois proposées

This solution is the worst of the three proposed

• Le pire, c'était qu'elle voulait revenir

The worst thing was that she wanted to come back

le/la/les moindre(s) is used in semi-fixed expressions, and with abstract nouns:

• le principe du moindre effort

the principle of least effort

• Ils ont essayé de suivre la politique du moindre mal

They tried to follow the policy which would do the least harm

Where concrete nouns are involved, however, le/la/les plus petit(e)(s) is used:

• Il a choisi le plus petit diamant

He chose the smallest diamond

When adjectives which normally precede nouns are used in a superlative form, they may follow the noun they modify on the grounds that they are 'too long' to appear in front of the noun:

• un bref aperçu le plus bref aperçu or l'aperçu le plus bref

a brief outline the briefest outline

• un jeune homme le plus jeune homme or l'homme le plus jeune

a young man the youngest man

Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, Emphasizing the reciprocal use of se by adding l'un l'autre & Easy future.

Other Lessons

• Typical use of demonstrative determiners
• Coordination of stressed pronouns
• Function of adverbs
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Kings, queens and popes
• Use of il, ce, cela and ça as impersonal pronouns
• Agreement with a preceding direct object in a relative clause when the participle is followed by an infinitive
• Nouns
• How to use falloir
• Common Mistakes
• Easy way of generating the present tense
• Pronouns referring to groups of mixed gender
• Subject verb agreement — Agreement with more than one subject
• Indefinite article
• Plural of words in "Al"
• Omission of the article with nouns in apposition