Language/French/Grammar/Absolute-use-of-the-superlative

Absolute use of the superlative

One way of translating into French expressions like 'the simplest of all', 'the most interesting imaginable' (known as 'absolute superlatives') is to put the expression des plus in front of the adjective: des plus simple(s), des plus intéressants). In this construction the adjective must agree in gender with the noun it modifies, but if the noun is singular the adjective may be either singular or plural:

• C'était une journée des plus intéressante(s)

It was the most interesting of days

• C'était un voyage des plus intéressant(s)

It was the most interesting trip imaginable

In modern French the plural form is probably the more frequent of the two.

Other ways of expressing an absolute superlative are:

• Ce raisonnement est tout ce qu'il y a de plus simple

This line of argument is of the simplest kind

• Un raisonnement on ne peut plus simple

The simplest line of argument of all

• Il préfère des solutions les plus simples possible (possible is invariable in this construction)

He prefers the simplest possible solutions

After mastering this lesson, these related pages might interest you: Possessive determiners, Omission of the article, on as an alternative to the English passive & Optional use of neutral le.

Other Lessons

• Nouns which refer both to males and to females
• Repetition of the definite article
• Agreement of the past participle following “être” with the subject of a passive
• Plural of words in Al
• Auxiliaries
• Grammatical and real number
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Ordinal number abbreviations
• How to write and read numbers
• Adverbs ending in —(é)ment derived from past participles
• English and French adverb formation
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of —ment
• Definite article
• Ce, and compound forms of être
• “en” when numbers are direct objects
• Pronominal Verbs