It is cool to be good, it is nice to be better, but it feels freaking awesome to be the best! Unfortunately we are still not good enough to say that we are the best Swedish speakers, but we do our best!

What the heck is he talking about? I just want to make an extraordinary intro for today’s lesson where we are going to discuss superlative adjectives. I hope that it is pretty clear now when we use superlatives — when something reaches the highest possible degree.

Let’s start with several sentences using superlative adjectives:

Jag är snabbast av alla.
I am the fastest of all.

Jag är smartast i hela världen.
I am the smartest in the whole world.

Han är snyggast.
He is the most handsome.

It is very similar to the comparative adjectives. We simply add -AST at the end of the adjective and we get the superlative form. This works fine as long as the adjectives belong to the regular group.

Let’s take a look at regular examples once more, but now in their definite forms:

Det var den varmaste dagen på året idag.
It was the hottest day of the year today.

Hon är den vackraste kvinnan i Sverige.
She is the most beautiful woman in Sweden.

Du köper alltid den dyraste saken i affären.
You always buy the most expensive thing in the store.

The ending to the definite forms is -ASTE.

The second large group of superlative words consists of adjectives that use MEST = THE MOST to express the superlative form. It is usually used with longer adjectives (more than three syllables) and with adjectives that end in -ISK. Find the examples in the tables bellow:

intressant — interesting
mest intressant — the most interesting

typisk — typical
mest typisk — the most typical

Since the grammar is fun, there is a nice, huge and entertaining group: the irregular adjectives. These words are actually the most common ones and it is a really good idea to learn them by heart. Here is a list with several superlative irregular adjectives:

bra — good
bäst — the best

dålig — bad
sämst — the worst

liten — small
minst — the smallest

gammal — old
äldst — the oldest

låg — low
lägst — the lowest

lång — long
längst — the longest

stor — big
störst — the biggest

ung — young
yngst — the youngest

Let’s call it a day! We are now able to compare things and say that something is the best. Keep up the good work and see you soon!