Two sentences under a microscope

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Believer

#235916 Wed, 14 Jun 06 10:13 AM

1. I think you have covered this area before but can you tell me why it, the word underlined, can do away with the usual word "the" in front of a superlative? This one (sorry) is from a post here.

I am (the???) happiest, I guess, when I have a fist full of chocolate in my hand.

2. Focusing on the part underlined, do you sense akwardness or it being wrong in terms of its grammar? It is from a post here too.

He has been doing it for some period of time from past and till this moment in the present

Believer

Joined on Mon, Jan 2 2006

Contributing Member (1,969)

Grammar

Grammar Geek

#236050 Wed, 14 Jun 06 04:35 PM

Hi Believer,

It's my setence, I know, and it sure looks silly without the entire conversation, doesn't it? I have been thinking about this. Another example of how a native speaker just "knows" it - and I'm sure one of the teachers of English as a second language can explain this better.

In a consturction I am NOUN (or he is NOUN) you need the article. But I am ADJECTIVE, you do not use one.

I am happy, he is rude. (adjectives)

I am generally a happy person I know. He is the rudest person I've ever met. (nouns)

You had used an example - something like "He is the rudest person I know" - rudest is an adjective describing person. There, you need the article as part of the noun phrase "the rudest person I know."

I am the happiest = I am the happiest that I know how to be. Isn't there a rule about articles before superlatives?

Try to do well vs. try to do THE BEST that you can? I am thinner than I was vs. I am THE MOST slender that I have ever been.

So we still come back to why you can leave out the "the" before happiest, which is a superlative. And this is where we need a language teacher. Is it simply idiomatic, or is there another reason? I just know that it "sounds" okay either way.

Regarding your second sentence, I would not have used the "and" - but I hope you will keep in mind that many of us write our explanations squeezed in between other activities in our day and don't spend the time in formal composition that we would put into more formal corresondence.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (16,098)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Articles, Conversations, Nouns, Noun Phrases, English as a Second Language

CalifJim

#236096 Wed, 14 Jun 06 06:46 PM

The usual formula is

Person [BE] Superlative-form WHEN ... (no "the").

I am happiest when I am with my friends.
That comedian is funniest when he plays to a small crowd.
The boss was rudest when he was under pressure.

This can sometimes be extended to inanimate subjects:
The class was most interesting when the teacher did demonstrations.

Or to cases with a different adverbial of time.
The car was fastest just after we got it tuned up.

It is less usual, though not wrong, to include the the.

Note: There is another common equivalent for this formula:

[BE] AT Personal-Adjective Superlative WHEN
I am at my happiest when ...
That comedian is at his funniest when ...
The boss was at his rudest when ...

Less often with inanimates: The class was at its most interesting when ...

Note that in the formulas above, we are not comparing the subject to anybody or anything else of the same type. For example, I am not saying that I am the happiest of all people, nor that the comedian is the funniest of all comedians, nor that the boss was the rudest of all bosses, nor that the class was the most interesting of all classes, nor that the car was the fastest of all cars. So a significant element requiring the is missing from that formula.

CJ

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,793)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche