Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.

Among my friends, Marie sings the best.

Breakdown of Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.

• Marie: Marie
• l'ami: the friend
• chanter: to sing
• mes: my
• parmi: among
• le mieux: the best

Questions & Answers about Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.

Why is it le mieux and not la mieux or les mieux?

Because mieux here is an adverb, not an adjective.

• chante is a verb (she sings).
• mieux answers how? she sings → it modifies the verb, so it is an adverb.
• Adverbs in French do not change for gender or number.

In le mieux, the le does agree with an implied masculine singular noun like le (meilleur) façon / le (meilleur) moyen — “the best way”. But mieux itself stays invariable.

Compare:

• Marie est la meilleure chanteuse.
  → meilleure is an adjective agreeing with chanteuse (feminine).
• Marie chante le mieux.
  → mieux is an adverb modifying chante; le introduces the superlative of the adverb.

What is the difference between le mieux and le meilleur?

• le mieux is the superlative of the adverb bien (well).
  It’s used with verbs: how someone does something.

  • Marie chante le mieux. = Marie sings the best (i.e., she sings best).

• le meilleur is the superlative of the adjective bon (good).
  It’s used with nouns: what thing/person is the best.

  • Marie est la meilleure chanteuse. = Marie is the best singer.

So:

• Verb → use le mieux
• Noun → use le / la / les meilleur(e)(s)

Why do we use Parmi here instead of something like entre?

Parmi means among and is the standard preposition for “out of a group” in this kind of sentence:

• Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.
  = Among my friends, Marie sings best.

Entre can sometimes overlap with parmi, but it’s more typical for:

• between two things: entre toi et moi (between you and me)
• physical location: entre la table et la fenêtre (between the table and the window)

With a group like “my friends”, especially when you mean “within this group, compared to them,” parmi is the natural choice.

Can I change the word order and say Marie chante le mieux parmi mes amis?

Yes, that is also correct.

• Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.
• Marie chante le mieux parmi mes amis.

Both are grammatical and natural. The difference is slight emphasis:

• At the beginning, Parmi mes amis emphasizes the group first.
• At the end, parmi mes amis is more like an added clarification: “by the way, among my friends”.

In everyday speech, both orders are used.

Why is there a comma after Parmi mes amis?

Parmi mes amis is a prepositional phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence. In French, when you front such a phrase for emphasis or style, it’s very common (and usually recommended) to separate it with a comma:

• Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux.

If you move the phrase to the end, the comma disappears:

• Marie chante le mieux parmi mes amis.

So the comma is mainly for clarity and rhythm when the phrase comes first.

Could we say Marie chante bien le mieux to emphasize it?

No, Marie chante bien le mieux is not idiomatic French.

You have two different ideas:

• Marie chante bien. = Marie sings well.
• Marie chante le mieux. = Marie sings best.

You don’t combine bien and le mieux like that. If you want to emphasize, you could instead say:

• C’est Marie qui chante le mieux parmi mes amis.
  (It’s Marie who sings best among my friends.)

What is the difference between Marie chante bien and Marie chante le mieux?

• Marie chante bien.
  = Marie sings well.
  This just says her singing is good, with no comparison.

• Marie chante le mieux.
  = Marie sings best.
  This is a comparison: she is the best singer in some group (here: among my friends).

In the original sentence, Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux, we explicitly state the group for the comparison.

Could I say Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le meilleur?

No, that’s incorrect.

• chante is a verb, so you must use an adverb: mieux → le mieux.
• le meilleur is an adjective, so it must modify a noun, not a verb.

Correct alternatives:

• Parmi mes amis, Marie chante le mieux. (Marie sings best.)
• Parmi mes amis, Marie est la meilleure chanteuse. (Marie is the best singer.)

Does parmi mes amis mean “my friend group” or literally “among the people who are my friends”?

Literally, parmi mes amis means among my friends: among the people who are my friends.

In practice, it can mean:

• within your friend group in general, or
• within some subset of your friends, depending on context.

The sentence itself doesn’t specify how many or which friends, only that she’s the best singer among the people you consider friends.

Is the verb form chante here the present tense? Why not chante bien?

Yes, chante is 3rd person singular, present tense of chanter:

• je chante
• tu chantes
• il / elle / on chante
• etc.

You could say:

• Marie chante bien. = Marie sings well. (no comparison)
• Marie chante le mieux. = Marie sings best. (superlative comparison)

In the original sentence, we want a superlative (she is the best of the group), so le mieux is used instead of bien.

How would I say “Among my friends, Marie is the best singer” instead?

You would use meilleur(e) as an adjective with chanteur / chanteuse:

• Parmi mes amis, Marie est la meilleure chanteuse.

Breakdown:

• Parmi mes amis = Among my friends
• Marie est = Marie is
• la meilleure = the best (feminine singular, agreeing with chanteuse)
• chanteuse = female singer

This focuses on Marie being “the best singer (as a person)”, whereas Marie chante le mieux focuses on the way she sings.