Skip to content

Superlativ — Form of Comparison (Superlativ)

🔙 Back to Grammar Overview

📺 Instructional Video

An instructional video explaining this grammar topic with practical examples.

🎯 Lesson Goals

  • Form superlative adjectives and adverbs
  • Learn the regular -ste and irregular -sten patterns
  • Avoid common pitfalls when using the superlative

📚 Core Rule

  1. Short adjectives (usually ending in a consonant) add -ste after the adjective:
  2. fast → am faststen (the fastest)
  3. If the adjective ends in -e, -el, -er, or a vowel‑heavy ending, drop the ending and add -sten:
  4. groß → am größten (the biggest)
  5. teuer → am teuersten (the most expensive)
  6. For adverbs the superlative is built with am … -sten as well:
  7. gut → am gutsten (the best)

⚠️ Common Error: Adding an extra e (e.g., am schnellest) is wrong. The correct form is am schnellsten.

Adjective Comparative Superlative
klein kleiner am kleinsten
laut lauter am lautsten
teuer teurer am teuersten

✅ Examples

  • Das schnellste Auto gewinnt das Rennen. (The fastest car wins the race.)
  • Er ist am freundlichsten von allen. (He is the friendliest of all.)
  • Das ist am interessantesten. (That is the most interesting.)
🔤 Lektion 9: Große und kleine Dinge — Big and Small Things 🔤 Exercises Lektion 9: Große und kleine Dinge (Big and Small Things)

📝 Interactive Exercises

✏️ Fill in the blank with the correct word: Write only one word in each field.

# Question Answer
1 Write the superlative of gut: ______
2 Turn teuer into the superlative: ______
3 Write the superlative of klein: ______

✏️ Fill in the blank with the correct word: Write only one word in each field.

# Question Answer
1 Superlative of laut: ______
2 Superlative of schnell: ______
3 Superlative of freundlich: ______