Forming the superlative

Form	Rule	For example
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.	Add -st to the end of the word.	wide - wid est
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.	Double the consonant and add -est to the end of the word.	big - bigg est
Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.	Add - est to the end of the word.	high - high est
Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.	Change 'y' to 'i', and add -est to the end of the word.	happy - happ iest
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.	Place 'the most' before the adjective.	beautiful - the most beautiful

The following adjectives are exceptions:

'good' becomes 'the best'

'bad' becomes 'the worst'

' far' becomes 'the furthest'

For example:

" Jill is the best student in the class. "

" Jack is the worst student in the class. "

"In our solar system the planet Pluto is the furthest planet from the Sun."

Note!

Superlatives are usually preceded by 'the'.

For example:

"The Rio de la Plata river, on the southeast coastline of South America, is the widest river in the world."

According to the List of World records Carol Yager (1960-1994), from Michigan, is the fat test person ever to live, weighing 725 kg (1,600 lb).

"Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world."

"I think that Castle Combe is the prett iest village in England."

"Arguably, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world."

 

When we group adjectives together there is a general rule for the position of each type adjective, these are:

 

Position	1st*	2nd*	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
	Opinion	Size	Age	Shape	Colour	Material	Origin	Purpose
	Nice	Small	Old	Square	Black	Plastic	British	Racing
	Ugly	Big	New	Circular	Blue	Cotton	American	Running

For example:

"She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, cotton, British, knitting bag."

Is grammatically correct but a bit too long-winded.

 

Note!

You might swap opinion and fact adjectives depending on what you wish to emphasise.

For example:

"She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.

"He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.