Venice: the most beautiful city in Europe?

Li:   大家好欢迎收听你问我答节目我是杨莉，为更好解答今天的问题我的同事William
Kremer 也来到了播音室. Hi William. 
 
William:   Hi Li!
 
Li:   Wiliam 今天我带给你的是一个既非常有趣有非常棘手的问题。问题来自一位姓王的英语爱好者。Wong says, "Hi, I am completely confused about the usage of ‘most’. I am not so sure when I have to put ‘the’ before ‘most’. For example, ‘Which question do you think most difficult?’ or ‘This is the most beautiful town in the world’. Why some need to add ‘the’ while some do not need to add ‘the’?" What’s the answer, William?
 
William:  ‘Which question do you think most difficult?’ and ‘This is the most beautiful town in the world’. What type of sentences are they, Li?
 
Li:   Ah let me think… 王列举的两个句子都涉及了形容词的最高级形式superlatives.
 
William:  Now with superlatives, in general we say ‘the’ before the superlative. So, we are the most interesting people in this room, Li. 
 
Li:   But there isn’t anyone else in the room!
 
William:    Never mind that. Now, the actual technical rule here is that we have to use ‘the’ with superlatives which define nouns. 
 
Li:   按照语法规则，如果用形容词的最高级来修饰一个名词，比如最大的城市，或最美的城市，那么在形容词前面必须加定冠词the。
 
William:   And Wong’s second example has a noun being defined by a superlative.
 
Li:   This is the most beautiful town in the world – 这是世上最美的城镇。 
 
William:   But Wong’s other example is the question ‘Which question do you think most difficult?’ – now here, ‘most difficult’ isn’t defining the noun ‘question’ and we don't need to say ‘the’. However, it is still possible to say ‘Which question do you think the most difficult?’
 Li:   比较王的另一个例句，我们可以看出这里的形容词最高级没有修饰任何名词，因此可以舍弃定冠词  the. 这是不是说我们只能在形容词最高级的问句中才能舍弃the这个定冠词呢, William?
 
William:   I think it’s more common in questions, but you do sometimes hear it in
statements. And this is quite informal. So for example, I can say ‘I’m
tallest in my office’. But note that I can’t say ‘I am tallest man in my
office’. You have to have ‘the’ when the superlative is followed by a
noun to be defined - you must say ‘I am the tallest man in my office.’
 
Li:   好，我来翻译一下，在非正式英语中可以在most 之前舍弃定冠词the，但是在形容词和名词联用的时候就不能舍弃。这听起来可是满复杂的。那么William, 能不能干脆在所有的形容词最高级形式most 前面都保留定冠词the? 这样不就更稳妥了吗？Do you agree?
 
William:   Yes Li, I do. However, there is one important exception. There is one time when we should drop ‘the’ before superlatives. And this is when our sentence isn’t comparing different things, but the way one thing is at
different times.
 
Li:   William说，有一种情况下我们必须舍弃定冠词the, 那就是对一个事物或一个人自身进行比较。 比如这个城镇在春天里最漂亮。‘This town is most beautiful in the Spring’.  
 
William:    OK, Li: a quick quiz. I’m going to say a sentence and I want you to say
if the sentence is right or wrong. Are you ready? 
 
Li:   OK… I’ll do my best.
 
William:   You are the most beautiful in the morning.
 Li:   That’s… wrong.
 
William:   Why? 
 
Li:   因为你比较的是我这个人在一天中不同时间段里的形象。所以正确的句子应该是 You are most beautiful in the morning. 
 
William:    Good, Li. Next sentence: Who is most famous writer in English?
 
Li:   That’s wrong. 
 
William:   Why?
 
Li:   因为这句话的形容词最高级most famous后面连着名词writer 因此应该说  the most – Who is the most famous writer in English?
 
William:   Well done! How about this one – William Shakespeare is the most famous writer in English.
 
Shakespeare:  That’s right!
 William/ Li:  William Shakespeare!
 
Shakespeare:  Hi guys. 
 
Li:   Wow… 这不是威廉莎士比亚嘛，我真不敢相信自己的眼睛了… 我有很多问题要请教您这位文学巨匠呢….
 
Shakespeare:  Yes well there’s time for that later. Let’s get on with the programme. Don’t mind me, I’ll just… sit here quietly.
 
Li:   好吧，我们正在探讨most 和the most 在不同句子里的用法，那William除了我们已经提到的惯例之外，还有什么情况下，可以在most 之前舍the这个定冠词呢?
 
Shakespeare:  Yes - when we use ‘most’ as an adverb itself. Oh sorry, did you mean that William? 
 
William:   No, no. You go on.
 
Li:   William 好像在说如果most 是作为副词来用那么  the 就可以省略了。 Can you think of an example?
 
Shakespeare:  Which English writer do you like most? Or I could say, Which English writer do you like the most? 
 
Li:   Er… 阿加沙克里斯蒂…?
 
Shakespeare:  Agatha Christie!...  
 
William:   Yeah, I like her most too. Now, another thing, Li. We never use ‘the’ when we use ‘most’ to mean the majority of...
 
Li:   这点很重要。在用most 表示多数这个意思的时候绝对不能用定冠词the…
 
William:   So, for example - 
 
Shakespeare:  Most people love my plays, you know. 
 
William:   Yes, that was what I…
Shakespeare:  Most people think I’m a genius. Most people think… most people think I’m a better writer than Agatha Christie. 
 
Li:   I think I might have hurt his feelings… 请大家注意莎士比亚说 most people 而不是the most people 因为他用 most 来表示多数这个概念。 
 
William:   Actually, Li – there is something else I want to mention relating to this use of the word ‘most’. I often hear learners of English saying things like ‘Most of Chinese love tea’. 
 
Li:   Ah… 这是不少中国学生的通病，关键就错在了of 这个词上，不能说most of Chinese love tea，这是错的。必须去掉of，就是一个正确的英语句子了most Chinese love tea. 通常情况下如果后面还有一个形容词性物主代词或定冠词的话，那么我们就需要在most 之前加上of. For example I could say-  
Shakespeare:  Most of my plays have been made into films.
 
Li:   Exactly. 莎士比亚使用了 most of 因为句子中有my ‘我的’这个主物形容词,.   Most of my works have been made into films. 
 
William:   Well, I think that covers everything. I do hope that this answer has been helpful, Wong and - 
 
Shakespeare:  No wait! There is of course another use of the word ‘most’… and it’s something I am most fond of in my plays. 
 
William:   Oh I know what he’s on about. In old-fashioned, formal English, we use most without ‘the’ to mean ‘very’.
 
Shakespeare:  Are you calling me old-fashioned?!
 
Li:   很好，这就是说在正式英语表达中我们可以只用most 而不用the 来表示非常这个概念。  I think this is most interesting! 
 
William:    Come on then Shaky, let’s hear an example.
 
Shakespeare:   Ok. This is the bit from the end of Romeo and Juliet, after the nurse finds Juliet’s dead body.
 
Li:   下面是著名莎剧罗密欧与朱丽叶中的一段引语，这一悲剧接近尾声时保姆发现了朱丽叶的尸体时，这是她的一段台词。 
 
Shakespeare:   And to understand this, you need to know that the words ‘woeful’ and ‘lamentable’ both mean ‘very sad’. Right, here I go: 
 
O woe! O woful, woful, woful day!
Most lamentable day, most woful day,
That ever, ever, I did yet behold!
O day! O day! O day! O hateful day!
Never was seen so black a day as this:
O woful day, O woful day!
 
William:   Powerful stuff. 
 
Li:   Most impressive. 好了希望今天的节目对如何使用most 做出了详细讲解。对王有帮助，也对所有的听众都有帮助。节目录音和文字稿件都可以免费下载。另外欢迎大家随时有问题随时给我们发电子邮件 questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk.  
 
William and Li: Bye. 
 
Shakespeare:   Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sorrow,    That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

Listen to this week's programme to hear Li and William tackle Wong's question with help from a very special guest.

Whether or not we put 'the' before 'most' depends on several things. Both Wong's example sentences above are examples of superlatives. With superlatives, it is usually safest is to put 'the' before the superlative, but it is sometimes possible to not do this, when there isn't a noun being defined.

So it is possible to say,

I am tallest in my office.

But if the noun 'man' follows the superlative you have to say

I am the tallest man in my office.

However, there is one main exception. We don't say 'the' when we are comparing the way one thing is at different times, rather than comparing two things. So,

This town is most beautiful in Spring.

Li and William also discuss rules about using 'most' when we aren't creating superlatives.

When we are using 'most' as an adverb we can choose whether to use 'the' or not. So, you can say

Which writer do you like most?

Or

Which writer do you like the most?

When we are using 'most' to mean 'the majority of' we don't use 'the', so:

Most Chinese people like tea

Lastly, in old-fashioned, formal English, 'most' is used on its own to mean 'very'.

I was most upset after he left.

Don't forget you can get a better idea of how to use 'most' by listening to the programme and downloading the script. If you have a question about the English language, send us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. Your name and answer to the question could appear on our website.

Glossary 词汇

depends on 取决于

superlatives （形容词的）最高级

defined 修饰定义的

exception 特例

adverb 副词