Superlative

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

The superlative: najbolji, najlepši, najjači

“The best”, “the most beautiful”, “the strongest”: this is the superlative, in Serbian superlativ. You already know its main secret from the lesson “Comparative”: the Serbian superlative comes almost for free. Take the comparative and stick the prefix naj- on the front. lepši (more beautiful) → najlepši (the most beautiful), bolji (better) → najbolji (the best). One move for every adjective.

This lesson won’t teach the comparative forms again (that was the previous lesson). It is about the superlative itself: why najjači is spelled with two j’s; how the irregular words behave (najbolji, najgori); the difference between “the best of” and “the best among” (od and među); and how to say “very, extremely”, with no comparison at all (prelep, vrlo lep).

naj- + comparative = superlative

The formula could hardly be shorter: take the ready comparative and add naj-. Nothing inside the word changes; the prefix simply sits on the front:

Notice one thing an English speaker does not expect. English builds its superlative from the basic form: new → newest, not “newerest”. Serbian builds it from the comparative: noviji → najnoviji. So the comparative ending stays inside the superlative, and whatever happened to the stem in the comparative stays too. Look at mlad → mlađi → najmlađi: the letter đ of the comparative passes straight into the superlative, and the prefix doesn’t touch it. The same goes for every consonant change produced by iotation (the fusion with j from the previous lesson): tvrd → tvrđi → najtvrđi (the hardest), sladak → slađi → najslađi (the sweetest). The prefix is a separate layer on top of a finished comparative and never takes part in the changes inside the stem. That is also why najjači has two j’s: when the comparative begins with j, the prefix keeps its own j and both are written (naj + jači, najjednostavniji, the simplest).

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

The superlative: najbolji, najlepši, najjači

One formula: the prefix naj- + the comparative. The prefix never changes (no gender, no case), is heard at the start of the word and already means “the most”: no second word, nothing for “the”.

naj- + comparative

Nothing inside the word changes: đ and the other changed consonants pass into the superlative as they are: tvrd → tvrđi → najtvrđi (the hardest), sladak → slađi → najslađi (the sweetest).

Spelling: two j’s

If the comparative itself starts with j, write both: najjači (naj + jači), najjednostavniji (the simplest). Check: remove naj- and the word still starts with j.

The irregular four: the same prefix

Built from the comparative, never from the basic word: no “najdobar”, no “najmali”.

“The most … of”

It is an adjective: soft declension (like letnji) and agreement: najlepši, najlepšeg, najlepšem, najbolja ideja, najbolje rešenje, najviša zgrada.

“Very”, no comparison