Saeed Gharaati
The superlative adjective from heavy is heaviest but the superlative of widely is most widely. Why? e.g. Spanish is the most widely spoken language in South America.
Apr 6, 2013 1:48 PM
Answers · 4
2
Because "widely" is an adverb, not an adjective like "heavy". Even among adjectives, generally only those of Anglo-Saxon (and not French, etc) can form the superlative with -est. A good rule of thumb is to form the superlative with -est only with adjectives with two syllables or fewer.
April 6, 2013
1
Yes, "widely" or "most widely" is an adverb in the sentence you give. And "widely" would never be a superlative. For superlatives, the basic adjectives in your question are heavy wide We use -iest for to form the superlative of words that end in -y. Therefore, the superlative of heavy is heaviest. We use -est for most other words that have one or two syllables. Therefore, the superlative of wide is widest. But for most words that have three or more syllables, we would *usually* say "most + basic adjective": for instance "most beautiful." And there are the irregular superlatives: good - better - BEST bad - worse - WORST far - further - furthest little - less - LEAST but few - fewer - fewest
April 6, 2013
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