LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

KOREAN SUPERLATIVES ~가장/제일

Superlatives, just like comparatives are so much easier in Korean than they are in English. In English, depending on the word you are using, you have to conjugate it differently:

She is the hottest girl
She is the most beautiful girl
She is the smelliest girl

In Korean, instead of mucking (I said "mucking") around with different forms like in English, all you need to do is add one word: 가장

예쁘다 - pretty
가장 예쁘다 - Prettiest

아름답다 - beautiful
가장 아름답다 - Most beautiful

A synonym of "가장" is "제일," which is often used in speech.
You can then put these into sentences just like you would normal adjectives:

저의 여자 친구는 한국에서 가장 예쁜 여자예요 - My girlfriend is the prettiest girl in Korea
가족은 가장 중요해요 - Family is the most important

You can't really use 가장 with verbs unless there is also an adverb included within the sentence. For example, you can't say this:

나는 가장 달려 - I run... most?... doesn't make sense

In these cases, you need to add an adverb to the sentence:

나는 가장 빨리 달려 - I run the fastest
우리가 집에 제일 늦게 도착했어요 - We arrived home the latest (we were the latest people to arrive at home)

However, you can add 가장 to 좋아하다 (to like) without an adverb to indicate that you 'like something the most.' (This is also how you say "my favorite" in Korean).

나는 그 여자를 가장 좋아해 - I like that girl most (that girl is my favorite)
나는 수학을 가장 좋아해 - I like math most (math is my favorite)

Note here that in most real situations it is probably more natural [in English and in Korean] to say something like:

I am the fastest runner – instead of – I run the fastest
Math is my favorite subject – instead of – Math is my favorite

To this point, you haven't learned how to add this extra dimension to your sentences with verbs. That being said, it is essentially the same as making this change to adjectives:
가족은 가장 중요해요 - Family is the most important
가족이 가장 중요한 것이에요 - Family is the most important thing

In order to express a negative superlative, of course, you can use a word that has a negative meaning, for example:

저는 사과를 가장 싫어해요 - I dislike apples the most
저는 사과를 제일 싫어해요 - I dislike apples the most

You could technically add ~지 않다 or ~안 to the sentence to make it a negative superlative sentence. For example:

그 여자는 우리 반에서 가장 예쁘지 않은 여자예요 - That girl is the least pretty in our class
그 여자는 우리 반에서 제일 예쁘지 않은 여자예요 - That girl is the least pretty in our class

수학은 가장 쉽지 않아요 - Math is the least easy
수학은 제일 쉽지 않아요 - Math is the least easy

However, those sentences would sound much more natural (in English and Korean) if you just used a word with the opposite meaning. For example:

그 여자는 우리 반에서 제일 못생긴 여자예요 - That girl is the ugliest in our class
수학은 제일 어려워요 - Math is the hardest

In most of these superlative sentences, it would usually sound much more natural to add "Of all X". For example:

Of all subjects at school, math is the most difficult
Of all fruit, I dislike apples the most

The grammatical principle needed to add this extra level of complexity to your sentences.

Two adverbs that 가장/제일 are often used with are 잘 and 못.