Level A2 (Upper Beginner)
The French word of the day is meilleur, which translates to both ‘better’ and ‘best’, depending on the context of the sentence. Today you’ll learn:
Pronunciation of meilleur
Kind of word
Example sentences in French & English
RELATED LESSON
Comparative & Superlative
Podcast of today’s lesson
Pronunciation
The pronunciation of meilleur is /may-yuhr/
Meilleur IPA pronunciation /mɛjœʀ/
Kind of word
Meilleur is both an adjective (better) and a noun (the best).
Example sentences
Meilleur as an adjective = better
In this sentence, meilleur is being used as a comparative adjective. To compare to nouns, there is no such thing as plus bon que. To say ‘better than’, use meilleur que.
Ce livre-ci est meilleur que ce livre-là.
This book is better than that book.
In this example sentence, meilleur means ‘best’. An -e has been added to form the feminine meilleure.
Pierre est mon meilleur ami. Françoise est ma meilleure amie.
Pierre is my best friend. Françoise is my best friend.
Meilleur as a noun = the best (superlative)
In this example meilleur is a superlative noun and means ‘the best’.
C’est son meilleur livre.
It’s his best book.
For this sentence, le meilleur means ‘the best’ for describing a masculine noun. To describe a feminine noun, use la meilleure and to describe a plural noun use les meilleur(e)s.
Ce fromage est le meilleur de la région.
This cheese is the best of the region.
Word origin
The Modern French word meilleur comes from melior (better) in Latin. Ameliorate (to make better, to improve) in English has the same Latin origin.
Contrasting meilleur with mieux
It’s important to not confuse the adjective/noun meilleur with mieux, which is an an adverb. For example:
Je vais bien. I’m fine.
Je vais mieux. I’m (feeling) better.
Je danse bien. I dance well.
Je danse mieux que toi. I dance better than you.
RELATED LESSON
Comparative & Superlative
This lesson provides a comprehensive overview of the French comparative and superlative. Example of the comparative are plus grand que (taller than) and moins intéressant que (less interesting than). Examples of the superlative are le plus grand (the tallest) and le moins intéressant (the least interesting).
Reference
