pre-modified superlative phrase – English Grammar Profiler

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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

But, I 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.