After the genuine effort of learning the comparative, the superlative is a gift. There is exactly one rule, it has no exceptions, and you already did the hard part: take the comparative and bolt nej- onto the front. Rychlejší ("faster") becomes nejrychlejší ("fastest"); lepší ("better") becomes nejlepší ("best"). That is the entire mechanism. This page shows how to form it, how it declines, how to say "the X-est of/in something," and how the same nej- builds the handy "as ... as possible" construction.
The rule: nej- + comparative
Whatever the comparative is, prefix nej- and you have the superlative.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| rychlý (fast) | rychlejší | nejrychlejší |
| mladý (young) | mladší | nejmladší |
| drahý (expensive) | dražší | nejdražší |
| hezký (pretty) | hezčí | nejhezčí |
| levný (cheap) | levnější | nejlevnější |
| starý (old) | starší | nejstarší |
Because the superlative is built from the comparative, the only thing that can go wrong is getting the comparative wrong. If you can form mladší, you can form nejmladší automatically; the prefix never changes shape.
Je to nejlepší kavárna ve městě.
It's the best café in town.
Chci ten nejmenší pokoj, co máte.
I want the smallest room you have.
nej-, for everything. Nejkrásnější is both "the most beautiful" and "the prettiest" — there is no "most" to add.Irregulars: the irregularity is in the comparative, not the prefix
A handful of very common adjectives have suppletive comparatives — forms with a different root. But here is the reassuring part: the superlative is still just nej- plus that comparative. The irregularity lives entirely one step earlier.
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
|---|---|---|
| dobrý (good) | lepší (better) | nejlepší (best) |
| špatný (bad) | horší (worse) | nejhorší (worst) |
| velký (big) | větší (bigger) | největší (biggest) |
| malý (small) | menší (smaller) | nejmenší (smallest) |
| dlouhý (long) | delší (longer) | nejdelší (longest) |
| vysoký (tall/high) | vyšší (taller) | nejvyšší (tallest) |
| nízký (low) | nižší (lower) | nejnižší (lowest) |
Byl to nejhorší den v mém životě.
It was the worst day of my life.
Sněžka je nejvyšší hora v Česku.
Sněžka is the highest mountain in the Czech Republic.
The same logic carries over to adverbs, treated in full on comparison of adverbs: dobře → líp / lépe → nejlíp / nejlépe ("well → better → best"). Again, nej- simply rides on the comparative.
It declines as a soft adjective
Every comparative and superlative in Czech ends in -í and declines as a soft adjective, like jarní. That makes life easy: in the nominative singular the form is the same for all three genders.
| Case (sg.) | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| nominative | nejlepší | nejlepší | nejlepší |
| genitive | nejlepšího | nejlepší | nejlepšího |
| dative | nejlepšímu | nejlepší | nejlepšímu |
| locative | nejlepším | nejlepší | nejlepším |
So you get nejlepší kamarád (best friend, m.), nejlepší kamarádka (best friend, f.), nejlepší auto (best car, n.) with no change in the nominative — and the expected soft endings in the oblique cases.
Bydlí v nejstarší části města.
They live in the oldest part of the city.
Patří mezi nejlepší studenty ve škole.
He's among the best students in the school.
"The X-est of / in" — ze/z + genitive and v + locative
To say what group the superlative is drawn from, Czech offers two patterns. z / ze + genitive means "(out) of" a set; v / ve + locative means "in" a place or group. Both are common; choose by whether you are picking out of a set or locating within one.
Eva je nejmladší ze všech sourozenců.
Eva is the youngest of all the siblings.
Je to nejchytřejší z celé rodiny.
She's the smartest in the whole family.
Tohle je nejdražší restaurace v Praze.
This is the most expensive restaurant in Prague.
Note the spelling ze všech, not z všech: the preposition z lengthens to ze before an awkward consonant cluster, and vš- triggers it. The phrase ze všech ("of all") is worth learning as a fixed unit — it is the default way to say "of all" with a superlative.
co nej- + comparative — "as ... as possible"
The same nej- form, preceded by co, builds the extremely useful "as ... as possible" construction. Literally it is "as [most-X] as": co nejdříve = "as soon as possible," co nejlépe = "as well as possible," co největší = "as big as possible."
Přijď co nejdřív, prosím.
Come as soon as possible, please.
Snažím se mluvit česky co nejlíp.
I try to speak Czech as well as I can.
Potřebuju co největší krabici.
I need the biggest box possible.
This frame is everywhere in real Czech — co nejvíc ("as much as possible"), co nejméně ("as little as possible"), co nejrychleji ("as fast as possible") — and it costs you nothing new once you can form the superlative.
"One of the best": jeden z nej- + genitive plural
A frame you will use constantly is "one of the best / biggest / most famous": jeden z (masc.) / jedna z (fem.) + the genitive plural of the superlative. The superlative, being a soft adjective, takes -ích in the genitive plural (nejlepších, nejznámějších).
Je to jeden z nejlepších doktorů v zemi.
He's one of the best doctors in the country.
Patří k nejznámějším spisovatelům té doby.
She's among the best-known writers of that era.
The closely related patřit k / mezi + superlative ("to be among the most...") works the same way and is a staple of biographies and reviews.
Common mistakes
❌ Je to nejvíc dobrý film roku.
Incorrect — don't stack 'most' onto a gradable adjective; use the synthetic superlative.
✅ Je to nejlepší film roku.
It's the best film of the year.
❌ Eva je nejmladšejší.
Incorrect — the comparative is mladší, so the superlative is nejmladší; no extra -ejší.
✅ Eva je nejmladší.
Eva is the youngest.
❌ Je to nej lepší kamarád.
Incorrect — nej- is a prefix and is written joined to the word.
✅ Je to nejlepší kamarád.
He's my best friend.
❌ Je nejmladší z všech.
Incorrect — z becomes ze before the cluster vš-.
✅ Je nejmladší ze všech.
He's the youngest of all.
The single thing to internalise: the superlative carries no independent difficulty. Master the comparative, write nej- in front of it (joined, never separated), and pick ze + genitive or v + locative for the group you are comparing against. For the close relative — nej- used to mean "extremely" rather than "the most" — see the absolute superlative.
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Start learning Czech→Related Topics
- Forming the Comparative: -ější, -ší, -číA2 — Czech builds comparatives with one of three suffixes — productive -ější, common -ší, and a small -čí set — often triggering a consonant change, and the result declines as a soft adjective.
- Irregular Comparatives and SuperlativesB1 — The suppletive forms: dobrý→lepší, špatný→horší, velký→větší, malý→menší, dlouhý→delší.
- Comparison With než and With the GenitiveB1 — Two ways to mark 'than': než + same case, or the bare genitive of comparison.
- Expressing 'Very' and the Absolute SuperlativeB2 — Intensifying without comparison: velmi/moc/náramně + adjective and prefixes like pře-, nej-...ze všech.
- Comparison of AdverbsB1 — How adverbs form comparatives in -e/-ěji and the irregulars lépe, hůře, víc, míň.
- The čím ... tím Construction: The More, The MoreB2 — Proportional comparison with čím + comparative ... tím + comparative.