German Grammar Explained /
Absolute superlative
The absolute superlative is all about exaggerating. Let's look at a dialogue to get the idea:
Hallo, wie war dein Urlaub?
Hello, how was your holiday?
Der war super! Wir hatten schönstes Wetter.
It was great! We had the best weather!
Und wie geht es deiner Familie?
And how's your family?
Danke, alles bestens.
Everyone's doing fantastic, thanks for asking.
Schön! Soll ich dir dann etwas über den Elativ erzählen? Hast du Lust?
Cool! Let's talk a little bit about the absolute superlative then, shall we? What do you think?
Ja, ich habe enorm große Lust auf Grammatik. Elativ, das hört sich hochinteressant an. Leg los!
Yes I'd love that. I love grammar. The absolute superlative sounds super interesting. Let's do it!
The absolute superlative also known as Elativ in German, is a kind of standalone superlative. This means that it does not compare something with anything else, but is simply the highest, most, or best form of something in of itself. It is used to highlight how special something is. More special than anything else!
Mama ist die Beste! → niemand ist besser als Mama
Mum's the best! →Nobody is better than Mum.
The absolute superlative is often used by the advertising industry. Buyers must be made aware that they are getting the very best product out there!
The absolute superlative is achieved using :
- Adverbs such as sehr, äußerst, enorm, extrem, überaus, höchst, (very, extremely, enormously, exceedingly, highly) and so on placed immediately in front of an adjective:
äußerst schönes Wetter
extremely nice weather
sehr spannende Abenteuer
very exciting adventure
enorm große Wohnung
enormously large appartment
extrem schnelle Lieferung
extremely fast delivery
höchst erfreuliche Nachricht
most enjoyable message
- or with prefixes like hoch-, super-, hyper-, top-, and so on.:
hypermoderne Architektur
hypermodern architecture
supergünstiges Angebot
super cheap offer
hochbegabte Schüler
highly gifted pupil
topaktuelle Nachrichten
extremely up-to-date news.
aus federleichtem Material
made of feather-light material
bildschöne Kleider
picture perfect dress
Younger people and particularly teenagers also use the absolute superlative a lot. Let's look at a super funny dialogue.
Ich finde deutsche Grammatik super-easy!
I think German grammar is super easy!
Was? Deutsche Grammatik ist mega-schwer!
What? It's mega hard!
Gar nicht wahr, die Grammatik ist überkrass. Du bist einfach nur übelst faul.
That's not true at all, grammar is super cool. You're just horribly lazy!
We're sure you're going to get it super quickly! ;)