You're learning with nine to five English - business English for the
workplace.
hi Tim here with another nine-to-five English lesson in today's lesson we're
going to learn how to talk about extremes using superlatives such as best
and worst business is a competition and in competition we are always talking
about who or what is at the top or the bottom usually this means comparing with
adjectives I mean we're talking about how small something is or how successful
someone is adding the idea of most to these adjectives is easy if the
adjective is short we just add est to the end so we say small list shortest
and cheapest if the adjective is longer then we use most such as most successful
or most interesting want to give this a try let's practice some examples of
using most and best listen to each example then repeat it yourself ready
let's get started our sales are usually highest in
November and December
of all the interviewees caleb was the most impressive
nothing really compares to the taste of beamers coffee
amazon has far and away the biggest selection of books alright we've just
practiced using most and best but you might have noticed another expression in
those examples if you want to say something is the best you can say that
nothing compares to it that just means nothing is even close to as good as it
if New York is your absolute favorite city for example you can say nothing
compares to New York so most and best are at one end of the
scale but what's at the other end well that would be worst and least I mean
maybe you think New York is the worst city in the world if you're using an
adjective to describe exactly what is so bad then you can choose a negative
adjective for example you can talk about the most terrible laptop or you can use
the word least like saying someone is the least interesting person how about
some more practice this time we're talking about negative ideas using worst
and least once again repeat the examples after you hear them the second quarter
of this year was our slowest ever you
there's nothing worse than high gas prices
wyndi is the least qualified person for the job
their customer service is the absolute worst
great work and did you notice two special expressions for saying something
is the worst one way is to say there's nothing worse than something that means
it's at the very bottom of the scale and another is to say something is the
absolute worst that makes it sound pretty bad doesn't it okay we've
practiced some of these expressions on their own but how does all this sound in
a conversation let's listen to a short dialogue between James and Nicola James
is asking Nicola about her new mobile phone are you happy with your new mobile
phone yeah nothing really compares to the latest Sam so you must notice a huge
difference in speed I sure do my old phone was the absolute worst for speed
as you heard Nicola thinks her new phone is the best while her old phone was the
worst now it's your turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but this time
we're going to beep out the second speakers words you will have to say
those parts yourself remember to start by saying that nothing compares to your
new phone then you'll say how bad your old phone was for speed here we go are
you happy with your new mobile phone
you must notice a huge difference in speed
you
all right that about does it for this lesson
we've learned some great ways to talk about the best and worst of things tune
in next time when you'll learn the best ways to talk about abilities until then
so long and happy learning