If you’ve ever caught yourself saying el más bueno or even el más mejor, you’re not alone. Many learners of Spanish try to transfer English logic word-for-word and end up with a phrase that simply doesn’t exist in Spanish. The problem is that every native speaker can tell instantly that something is off. The good news? Fixing this mistake only takes a few minutes.
In this guide, we’ll go step by step through superlatives in Spanish, showing you:
By the end, you’ll know exactly how to stop saying el más bueno and start sounding much more fluent.
In English, we form superlatives with “the most” or “the least”:
Spanish works in almost the same way, but with a very clear formula:
definite article (el, la, los, las) + más / menos + adjective
Here are some examples:
Notice how the article, the word más or menos, and the adjective all agree with the noun. If you don’t mention the noun, you can still use the structure:
This pattern is extremely common. To specify the group you are comparing within, Spanish often uses de + noun or que + verb:
If you remember this formula, you already have most of the superlative system in Spanish under control.
The place where learners make the biggest mistakes is with the adjectives “good” and “bad.” In Spanish, you cannot say más bueno or más malo when forming superlatives. Instead, Spanish uses irregular forms:
So instead of el más bueno, the correct form is el mejor / la mejor / los mejores / las mejores.
Instead of el más malo, it’s el peor / la peor, etc.
Examples:
And there’s more. Other adjectives also have irregular superlative forms, particularly when talking about age or size:
Examples:
These irregular forms are common when referring to people’s age or relative position in a group. But in everyday conversation, people also use el más grande or el más pequeño to talk about physical size.
Finally, don’t forget about the neuter form with lo mejor / lo peor:
So far, we’ve seen relative superlatives, statements that compare something to the rest of a group. But what if you want to say something is extremely good or extremely bad without making a comparison? That’s where absolute superlatives come in.
The most common way to create them is by adding the suffix -ísimo / -ísima / -ísimos / -ísimas to the adjective.
Steps:
Examples:
Pay attention to spelling changes:
Absolute superlatives are powerful because they emphasize the quality without comparing:
You’ll also hear other intensifiers like muy, sumamente, or extremadamente plus an adjective, but -ísimo feels more natural and idiomatic in most cases.
In formal writing or literature, you may also come across forms such as:
So you might read sentences like:
In everyday conversation, though, people prefer buenísimo or malísimo over óptimo or pésimo.
Here are the errors most learners make with superlatives in Spanish and how to correct them:
If you can avoid these traps, your Spanish will instantly sound more polished and natural.
Here’s a mix of relative and absolute superlatives in Spanish for practice:
Try writing your own three sentences:
That simple exercise will help lock the patterns into memory.
Mastering superlatives in Spanish is not difficult once you know the three building blocks:
If you keep these in mind, you’ll avoid the classic mistakes like el más bueno and sound much closer to a native speaker.
I hope you found this explanation of superlatives in Spanish helpful. Did you already know about the irregular forms like mejor and peor, or was that new to you? Let me know your thoughts, and if you have your own examples, share them; we’d love to see how you put these into practice.