This is New York in Slow English.
I've been traveling a lot lately over the last couple of weeks, and one of the places
I went was Wyoming.
Now Wyoming is state that is made for superlatives.
And it made me think that maybe this is a really good time to review how the superlative
works in English.
So when we use the superlative we are talking about 1 thing.
Right?
We're talking about the best thing, or the most, or the least.
Right?
And so as a result we're talking about a very specific thing.
Now when we talk about something that is 1 specific thing, we always use the article
"the".
So, we will have the sweetest food, the biggest mountain, the prettiest girl, the most boring
class, the most dangerous adventure, the best student, the worst night, the farthest or
furthest road, and the least success.
Alright, so let's look at the rules around each one of these examples.
So for the first one, we have the sweetest food.
If you look at it, it is a 1-syllable adjective.
Sweet.
It's a 1-syllable adjective.
So we have the sweet food.
Now when you have 1 syllable, in general, it's pretty easy, you just add -est.
And we have the sweetest food.
Now if you have a 1-syllable word, say for example "big", but notice it has a single
vowel "i" followed by a single consonant "g", then when we add the -est, we actually double
the consonant.
So "big" becomes "biggest", spelled with 2 "g's".
Now if you have a 2-syllable word like the word "pretty" that ends with a "y", in this
case we take off the"y", replace it with an "i", and add the -est.
So, "pretty" becomes "prettiest".
In general, for all other 2-syllable words, we use the word "most".
So, for example, the boring class becomes the most boring class.
It's the same thing for 3-syllable words.
So, the dangerous adventure becomes the most dangerous adventure.
There are some irregular adjectives out there.
So, for example, the good student becomes the best student.
The bad night becomes the worst night.
The far road becomes the farthest road, or sometimes we say the furthest road.
And the little success becomes the least success.
Let's look at some videos from my vacation, and you'll see that when you're in Wyoming
we use superlatives all the time.
As you can see, I'm actually not in New York City right now.
I'm in Wyoming for New Years Eve which is where my husband grew up.
Wyoming is one of the largest states in the United States in terms of how big it is, but
it has the smallest population of all the United States.
This is part of the cattle ranch where my husband grew up in northern Wyoming.
And you can see these are the emptiest and loneliest roads in the United States.
We've decided today to go up into the mountains.
It's about, who knows?, maybe -10 degrees right now.
Here's my husband John.
Yeah, it's pretty cold out here, isn't it?
Yeah, this is the coldest day of the year.
Connie, are you warm?
Yeah.
I'm pretty warm.
I mean this coat and this sweater are the warmest things I've got.
This scarf is pretty good too, though it's the most bothersome thing 'cause it's all
stuck around my mouth.
You look good.
Great, thanks.
On the way to our hike we stopped by a dog sled race where some kids were out.
This little guy, well, he was the youngest competitor.
What's the farthest that you've ever gone with the dogs?
Probably 6 miles.
Wow.
We're hiking up this mountain.
My husband has those new skis he got for Christmas, so he wants to try them out.
It's pretty empty here, but there's a snowmobile track in front of us so that's kind of what
we're following.
Do you see my shadow there?
It's so long.
It's only about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, but it's December 31, New Years Eve.
It's almost the shortest day of the year.
And the sun goes down pretty early here.
Hey!
This friendly man picked me up on his snowmobile and gave me a ride up to meet my husband who
was way ahead of me.
Well, he took me up the steepest part.
I only dumped her off once.
Yeah.
Back to the old-fashioned way: walking.
My husband stopped at the highest point, turned, and then skied down.
He's one of the most graceful skiers I know.
Clearly I'm one of the most awkward snowshoers!
Just as we got home, the largest and brightest moon of the year rose over the hill behind
our house.
It was a super moon - when the moon was the closest to the earth that it will come all
year.
I just want to say Happy New Year to everybody, and thank you so much to the people who have
already subscribed to me.
This channel is less than, it's about a month old.
And I'm just so thrilled that you have trusted me to bring you some good information about
English and about New York City, and about other things as it turns out.
My new years resolution to you is that I will try very hard every week or 10 days to post
a video for you about English and also about New York City.
If you like this video, let me know.
And please subscribe!
I look forward to meeting you, and I'll see you next time on New York in Slow English.