pre-modified superlative phrase

Here are more advanced examples of premodified superlative phrases:

It‘s the next best thing to having you beside me.

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It was the second-largest gold rush in American history.

Rat Race

Note, the phrase “the second largest” is a compound modifier, where “second” modifies “largest”. It usually takes a hyphen before its noun.

US customs officials report that 

tomato smuggling is at its highest level

 since the Great Tomato War.

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its = B2 possessive determiner

 

In the English Grammar Profile, B1 Point 48 in the category of ADJECTIVES is defined as:

noun phrases with a range of determiners before a superlative adjective.


*This should include a range of nouns because at A2 it is a limited range.  One can guess that ‘my’ ‘your’ can still be B1 if the noun is not A1. We have removed some results that are clearly A2.

An iWeb search for:

_APPGE _JJT _NN

1 YOUR BEST BET 34849 (C2)

4 HIS BEST FRIEND 13240

6 HER BEST FRIEND 10939
7 YOUR BEST OPTION 8965
8 YOUR BEST INTEREST 8002
9 HIS LATEST BOOK 4861

His latest book, ” Losing Faith, ” is currently number one on that publication‘s bestseller list.

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10 ITS HIGHEST LEVEL 4785
11 MY BEST GUESS 4453
12 YOUR BEST INTERESTS 4397
13 YOUR BEST CHOICE 4348
14 MY OLDEST SON 4139
15 MY BEST ADVICE 4010
16 YOUR BEST FRIENDS 3953
17 ITS LOWEST LEVEL 3795
18 MY BIGGEST PROBLEM 3683
19 THEIR BEST WORK 3524
20 THEIR BEST INTERESTS 3475
21 THEIR BEST INTEREST 3403
22 MY BIGGEST CONCERN 3383
23 MY CLOSEST FRIENDS 3354
24 YOUR BEST WORK 3289
25 MY OLDEST DAUGHTER 3090
26 HIS ELDEST SON 2994
27 OUR BEST EFFORTS 2982
28 MY YOUNGEST SON 2930
29 ITS SIMPLEST FORM 2770
30 YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS 2545
31 YOUR BEST FOOT 2478
32 ITS PUREST FORM 2454
33 HIS LATEST ALBUM 2452
34 ITS HIGHEST POINT 2448
35 OUR BEST SELLING 2411
36 THEIR FULLEST POTENTIAL 2407
37 YOUR BEST CHANCE 2400
38 THEIR LATEST ALBUM 2312
39 MY YOUNGEST DAUGHTER 2306
40 HIS BEST SEASON 2271
41 MY BIGGEST FEAR 2217
42 HIS BEST FRIENDS 2119
43 HIS BEST GAME 2112
44 YOUR BEST EFFORTS 2063
45 MY BIGGEST ISSUE 2055

46 HER LATEST BOOK 2036

TLC STUDENT SPEAKING TEST:

It is her latest book.

male India B2

47 HIS BEST WORK 1993
48 THEIR BEST EFFORTS 1958
49 OUR HIGHEST PRIORITY 1943
50 THEIR HIGHEST LEVEL 1928
51 MY WILDEST DREAMS 1868
52 YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE 1798
53 ITS LOWEST POINT 1755
54 MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT 1731
55 ITS FULLEST POTENTIAL 1694
56 YOUR BEST CUSTOMERS 1628
57 HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS 1625
58 OUR BEST INTEREST 1621
59 YOUR BEST SELF 1620
60 OUR BEST INTERESTS 1592
61 THEIR HIGHEST POTENTIAL 1588
62 MY BIGGEST CHALLENGE 1571
63 THEIR BEST PLAYERS 1557
64 HIS LATEST PROJECT 1555
65 MY BEST BET 1542
66 HER BEST FRIENDS 1531
67 MY BEST EFFORTS 1530
68 YOUR BEST SHOT 1499
69 MY BEST WORK 1487
70 MY BEST INTEREST 1482
71 THEIR BEST FRIEND 1479
72 HIS YOUNGEST SON 1459
73 MY BEST WISHES 1450
74 HIS LATEST FILM 1392
75 YOUR BEST OPTIONS 1357
76 THEIR BEST PLAYER 1345
77 MY WORST ENEMY 1313
78 ITS EARLIEST DAYS 1302
79 OUR BEST FRIENDS 1252
80 THEIR BEST CHANCE 1248
81 YOUR WILDEST DREAMS 1235
82 MY BEST OPTION 1230
83 HIS BEST PERFORMANCE 1220
84 YOUR BEST JUDGMENT 1208
85 HER LATEST ALBUM 1198
86 YOUR NEAREST STORE 1186
87 ITS WIDEST POINT 1185
88 MY EARLIEST MEMORIES 1178
89 MY FONDEST MEMORIES 1170
90 YOUR BEST DEFENSE 1162
91 MY ELDEST SON 1159
92 HIS OLDEST SON 1157
93 HIS LATEST WORK 1136
94 YOUR BEST EFFORT 1108
95 YOUR WORST ENEMY 1103
96 YOUR BEST SOURCE 1102
97 OUR BEST SELLERS 1089
98 YOUR BEST LIFE 1075
99 OUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE 1060
100 OUR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES 1054


A2:
advice, album, customers, deepest, dreams, earliest, form, fullest, guess, highest, latest, level, lowest, memories, point, project, selling, simplest, widest, wildest, wishes, worst
B1:
bet, challenge, chance, choice, complaint, effort, efforts, eldest, enemy, fear, fondest, interest, interests, issue, nearest, option, options, performance, purest, season, sellers, shot, store
B2:
concern, convenience, judgment, potential, priority, source

 


EXPERT EXAMPLE:

During my senior year, we won a league championship 

which is among my greatest memories and achievements.

americanfootballinternational.com


Here is a search in COCA for:

_A * _JJT

1 THE VERY BEST 1514
2 THE ” BEST 1067
3 THE NEXT BEST 1049
4 THE SECOND LARGEST 997
5 THE VERY LATEST 855

ButI absolutely have to be home by Christmas Eve at the very latest.

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6 THE SINGLE BIGGEST 531
7 THE SECOND HIGHEST 455
8 THE TWO BIGGEST 439
9 THE TWO LARGEST 422
10 THE SINGLE LARGEST 420
11 THE THIRD LARGEST 409
12 THE SINGLE GREATEST 403
13 THE ABSOLUTE BEST 373
14 THE TWO BEST 370
15 THE VERY WORST 324
16 THE ABSOLUTE WORST 302
17 THE SINGLE BEST 295
18 THE ” GREATEST 288
19 THE SECOND BEST 248
20 THE ” WORST 230
21 THE SECOND BIGGEST 226
22 THEIR OWN BEST 200
23 THE FOURTH LARGEST 193
24 THE VERY HIGHEST 184
25 THE 10 BEST 174
26 THE THREE LARGEST 169
27 THE NEXT HIGHEST 165
28 MY VERY BEST 154
29 THE NEXT LARGEST 151
30 MY NEW BEST 137
31 THE THIRD HIGHEST 130
32 THE ” BIGGEST 125
33 THE TWO GREATEST 123
34 A PERSONAL BEST 120
35 THE ‘ BEST 119
36 THE 10 LARGEST 118
37 YOUR OWN BEST 115
38 THE FIVE LARGEST 112
39 THE LAST BEST 111
40 MY TWO BEST 110
41 THE SECOND OLDEST 110
42 THE 100 BEST 109
43 YOUR NEW BEST 107
44 THE SECOND WORST 106
45 HIS OWN WORST 103
46 THEIR OWN WORST 101
47 THE ” HIGHEST 97
48 THE THREE BEST 95
49 THE VERY EARLIEST 94
50 OUR OWN WORST 92

Our own worst is a phrase that means “the most harmful or damaging thing to oneself”. It is often used with the word enemy, as in “be your own worst enemy”, which means “to cause most of your problems yourself”.

The grammar of our own worst is:

  • Our is a possessive determiner that shows that something belongs to us or relates to us.
  • Own is an adjective that emphasizes that something belongs to or is done by a particular person or thing and not someone or something else.
  • Worst is a superlative adjective that means “the most bad” or “the least good”. It is used to compare one thing with two or more other things.

For example, in the sentence “We are our own worst critics”, we means “the speaker and the listener”, own emphasizes that we are the ones who judge ourselves harshly, and worst compares our criticism with any other possible criticism.

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