Better or best?

[temcat.livejournal.com]

When producing comparatives and superlatives from the adjective хороший, there is one gotcha that Russian learners should know about. The gotcha is in the word лучший, which can mean both "better" and "best":

Он искал лучшей доли - He was seeking a better lot
Должен быть какой-то лучший способ обработки этой информации - There must be some better way to process that information

Ты лучшее, что у меня есть в этой жизни - You are the best thing in my life
У нас лучшие повара во всем городе! - We have the best cooks in town!

Because of this ambiguity, use лучший with caution in order to not make a fool of yourself. In fact, it can happen even with a Russian! An excellent example of embarassment that лучший can cause was a speech that one of my acquaintances gave on a wedding (Вика was the name of the bride):

Я глубоко убежден: Вика заслуживает лучшего!

All guests laughed like mad! Apparently, he meant "It is my strong belief that Vika deserves the best", but together with the verb заслуживать the adjective лучший is perceived as a comparative, therefore what he actually said was:

It is my strong belief that Vika deserves something better!

Which was, of course, not something the groom would like to hear on the wedding :-) Luckily, this can be easily be avoided. To make a superlative, just put the word самый (most) in front of лучший:

Я глубоко убежден: Вика заслуживает самого лучшего! - It is my strong belief that Vika deserves the best!

This way, the ambiguity is eliminated.

Comments

[viric.livejournal.com]

"Ты лучшее, что у меня есть в этой жизни"
Here you've used an adverb instead of an adjective, isn't it?

Thanks a lot for your explanation; I knew about the double meaning - I usually don't know what's meant to say ;) It's like the use of рука, нога, ручка... They use that for everything related to hands, arms, legs, feet, ... Impossible for me to understand at once what's meant.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

No, лучшее was an adjective - лучше is the adverb. Heck, I even suspect that лучшее is actually a noun here :-/ Well, this example was not the best.

[viric.livejournal.com]

хаха
I think that лучшее is a comparative adverb. It's like "better". 'better' is an adverb in English, isn't it?
Кошмар :)

[temcat.livejournal.com]

No, with an adverb in that place the sentence does not even make sense.

[oryx_and_crake]

No, it is not. It is an adjective. By the way, I think "better" is not an adverb in English either, or at least not alweays - it is a comparative form of an adjective. Compare: "This is the better book of the two." and "This is the best book." "Better" and "best" are both adjectives.

[oryx_and_crake]

An adjective cannot be a noun, it can be a subject though, which is the case here.

[temcat.livejournal.com]

OK, it's indeed the subject-ness that got me confused :-)

[oryx_and_crake]

лучше can be a comparative form of an adjective, or it can be an adverb, depending.

Делай с нами, делай как мы, делай лучше нас! - adverb
Это мороженое хорошее, это мороженое лучше, это мороженое самое лучшее - different forms of an adjective.

Predicative Comparative

[viric.livejournal.com]

Ok... In my grammar book, those -ее are "Predicative comparatives".

There, after explaining the superlative with самый and the genitive of все (лучше всех, лучше всего), says:

Other forms of the superlative: Although the superlative with самый is much the commonest form in use, you should eventually become familiar with the following:
(a) The attributive comparatives given above (больший, высший, меньший, младший, низший, старший, лучший, худщий) can also be used as superlatives, either by themselves or together with самый:
Это (самая) лучшая книга в библиотека.=This is the best book in the library.
(b)...
(c)Attributive superlatives are also formed with suffixes: -ейший or, after one of the four "hissing" consonants, -айший. This are declined like хороший:
Positive / Superlative
близкий near / ближайший nearest, very near
богатый rich / богатейший richest, very rich
.... and quite a big list.

[gera.livejournal.com]

Я глубоко убежден: Вика заслуживает лучшего!

Good one :)