GrammatikSuperlativ

The superlative (превосхо́дная сте́пень) is the form you use to say that something has the most of a quality — the biggest, the best, the most interesting. Where the comparative says “more than”, the superlative says “more than all the others”.

• Э́то са́мый большо́й го́род. (This is the biggest city.)
• Она́ моя́ лу́чшая подру́га. (She is my best friend.)
• Он бе́гает быстре́е всех. (He runs the fastest.)

The easy way: са́мый + adjective

By far the simplest and most common superlative is са́мый (the most) placed in front of the ordinary adjective. It works with almost any adjective, so if you learn only one method, learn this one.

Here both words agree with the noun: са́мый is itself an adjective, and the describing adjective keeps its normal ending too.

Because both words are ordinary adjectives, they also change together through the cases:

• Я живу́ в са́мом большо́м до́ме. (I live in the biggest house.)

Naming the group: “in …”, “of …”

A superlative usually points to the group that something stands out from, for example the biggest in the city, the tallest of the students. Russian shows that group in two common ways:

• в + the prepositional case, for a place: са́мый большо́й дом в го́роде (the biggest house in the city)
• из + the genitive case, for a set of things or people: Он са́мый высо́кий из студе́нтов (he is the tallest of the students)

The same works with the spoken pattern below: Он вы́ше всех в кла́ссе (he is the tallest in the class).

Irregular one-word superlatives

A few very common adjectives have a special one-word superlative used before a noun. The two you will meet constantly are:

These agree like any adjective: лу́чший друг (best friend), лу́чшая подру́га (best girl-friend), в лу́чшем слу́чае (in the best case). There are only a handful of them — see the full list here.

In everyday speech you will often hear са́мый added on top for emphasis, even though it is not strictly needed: са́мый лу́чший друг (the very best friend). For extra emotional emphasis, speakers may even double it: са́мый-са́мый лу́чший день (the very, very best day).

The spoken favourite: comparative + всех / всего́

There is a second everyday way to make a superlative: take the comparative and add всех (than everyone) or всего́ (than everything). Literally “faster than everyone” means “the fastest”.

• Он бе́гает быстре́е всех. (He runs the fastest — faster than everyone.)
• Она́ поёт лу́чше всех. (She sings the best.)
• Я люблю́ ле́то бо́льше всего́. (I love summer most of all.)

Choose between the two words like this:

• всех — when comparing among people or things (better than everyone): лу́чше всех
• всего́ — when comparing among things or activities (more than anything): бо́льше всего́

This construction is the usual way to make the superlative of an adverb (with a verb), where са́мый cannot be used:

• Он встаёт ра́ньше всех. (He gets up the earliest.)

The bookish way: the suffix -ейший / -айший

Russian also has a one-word superlative built with the suffix -ейш- plus an agreeing ending. It sounds more formal or assertive and is common in writing.

• краси́вый → краси́вейший (most beautiful)
• интере́сный → интере́снейший (most interesting)
• ва́жный → важне́йший (most important)

After the consonants г, к, х the suffix becomes -айш- and the consonant changes:

• высо́кий → высоча́йший (highest)
• бли́зкий → ближа́йший (nearest)

These forms agree like ordinary adjectives (-ейший, -ейшая, -ейшее, -ейшие). Note that they often mean simply “an extremely …” rather than a strict comparison: интере́снейший фильм usually means an extremely interesting film, not the single most interesting one.

The formal written way: наибо́лее

In formal or written Russian you may also see наибо́лее (most) and its opposite наиме́нее (least) before the adjective. They do not change form themselves; the adjective agrees as normal.

• наибо́лее ва́жный вопро́с (the most important question)
• наиме́нее изве́стный писа́тель (the least known writer)

Closely related is the prefix наи-, which fuses onto a single word: наилу́чший (the very best), наибо́льший (the greatest), наиме́ньший (the smallest). You will mostly meet these in set phrases such as наилу́чшие пожела́ния (best wishes).

Which one should I use?

• As a beginner, default to са́мый + adjective. It is correct almost everywhere and easy to build.
• In speech, especially with verbs, reach for the comparative + всех / всего́ pattern (лу́чше всех).
• Use лу́чший and ху́дший for “best” and “worst”.
• Leave -ейший and наибо́лее for formal or emphatic writing — recognise them, but you rarely need to build them yourself.

Common mistakes

• Inventing a “-ее” superlative. There is no word са́мее; the superlative uses са́мый + the normal adjective.
  са́мее большо́й (wrong) → са́мый большо́й (correct)
• Adding са́мый to a comparative. Use са́мый with the ordinary adjective, not the comparative.
  са́мый быстре́е (wrong) → са́мый бы́стрый (correct)
• Forgetting that са́мый agrees. It matches the noun in gender, number and case.
  са́мый краси́вая де́вушка (wrong) → са́мая краси́вая де́вушка (correct)
• Mixing up всех and всего́. Use всех for people, всего́ for things and activities.
  Она́ поёт лу́чше всего́ (wrong, about a person) → Она́ поёт лу́чше всех (correct)

Summary

• The superlative means “the most X”.
• The easy, all-purpose form is са́мый + adjective; both words agree with the noun (са́мый большо́й дом).
• In speech, comparative + всех / всего́ is very common (лу́чше всех, бо́льше всего́).
• Irregulars: лу́чший (best), ху́дший (worst).
• The suffix -ейший / -айший and наибо́лее are more formal or emphatic.