word usage “I did my best” vs “I did the best I could” English Language Learners Stack Exchange

Best here is used as an adverb as it provides the description of the experience of watching sport (verb) “at the place where the match is unfolding.”. Watching sports is a very social pastime and Watching sports is best experienced at the place where the match is unfolding. Watching sports is a very social pastime and best experienced at the place where the match is unfolding. Assuming that the passage in the question is about the thinking of someone who is faced with choosing a course of action to take, not evaluating the outcome of an action already taken, I would use best as an adjective.

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Here, we have the adjective best, but this adjective is attached to no noun.

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When I hear I did the best I could I think the speaker might be implying that he could have done better but therewas something external (something that wasn’t up to him) that affected his performance. So he did the best he could but maybe he could have done better if he was given better tools (i.e. I did the best I could with the best programs to quit drinking given tools which is not my absolute best). Another example would be “I did the best I could under those specific conditions and circumstances”. Your example already shows how to use “best” as an adverb.

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This is correct even if Mr. Smith is still working as a teacher, as long as the speaker’s relationship to Mr. Smith has changed. For a more thorough explanation of why the two formats look the same, see JavaLatte’s answer and note that “the best” is a complement. I am not clear on the last bit of the sentence, “which one is the best”.

  • For example, in preparing dinner I did the best I could with the ingredients available in the refrigerator, but if I’d had time to go to the supermarket I could have bought more ingredients to cook something much nicer.
  • I experience, I am experiencing, I have experienced it, I have experienced it best.
  • In an answer on englishforums.com it says that both are exactly the same.
  • In the context of a person, use “is” if the person is still in the role/relationship you are talking about, and “was” if they’re not in that role/relationship anymore.

Answers 2

So, “It is the best ever” means it’s the best of all time, up to the present. “It was the best ever” means either it was the best up to that point in time, and a better one may have happened since then, or it includes up to the present. In an answer on englishforums.com it says that both are exactly the same. In the Young Cook of Britain competition, the finalists were asked which famous person they would like to cook for. Your original is correct as-is, except you need to remove the question mark at the end because it’s not a question.

  • Grammatically, I suppose, they may have a slightly different feel to them; I think I did the best I could works better at the end of a sentences than at the beginning, so I’m somewhat partial to Answer 1.
  • 3) Getting rid of stress is the best way to live happily.
  • The best way to ruin a first date is by talking about yourself too much.
  • I could even see myself exchanging these terms with their meanings in certain circumstances, so clearly they’re not mutually exclusive.

In essence, one is saying, “I feel good about my efforts.” Insofar as meaning goes, though, I can’t discern even a slight difference. On the other hand we have I did my best which I think is just more generic. It just says that I did my best with no reference to anything that may have affected my performance. So it could be the best I could in the given context or just my absolute best.

In your example “experienced” is the past tense of the verb to experience, not describing someone as having experience of something. So “best experienced” means the best way to experience something. This implies that Mr. Smith is no longer the speaker’s teacher.

In the context of a person, use “is” if the person is still in the role/relationship you are talking about, and “was” if they’re not in that role/relationship anymore. “Ever” means “of all time”, but the exact meaning changes with the tense. When the subject and the auxiliary verb are swapped over, it’s called inversion.

What I mean is getting rid of stress is good and necessary when we want to live happily. But when I mean it in another way using ‘way’, I get it mixed up. In SummaryIf anyone can point out a difference between Answer 1 and Answer 2, we might be able to unlock the mystery. Grammatically, I suppose, they may have a slightly different feel to them; I think I did the best I could works better at the end of a sentences than at the beginning, so I’m somewhat partial to Answer 1. Both phrases talk about putting the utmost effort into some endeavor, be it a sculpture, a race, a homework assignment, or some other task.

Stack Exchange network consists of 183 Q&A communities including Stack Overflow, the largest, most trusted online community for developers to learn, share their knowledge, and build their careers. I hope we can both agree this sentence is wrong because “good” is an adjective, and cannot be the subject of “is”. A question word can function as subject, object, complement or adverbial. In your example “experienced” is the verb that is receiving best.

The adjective best is used in a copular construction with the dummy pronoun it. 3) Getting rid of stress is the best way to live happily. When it comes to living happily, the best way is to get rid of stress. The best way of living happily is to get rid of stress. The best way for you to live happily is to get rid of stress.

I could even see myself exchanging these terms with their meanings in certain circumstances, so clearly they’re not mutually exclusive. I accept that not everyone will see any difference between the two. As I said at the beginning of my answer, I’m not sure that I see a difference anymore either. The two phrases do feel slightly different to me, but I can’t explain that any better than what I’ve already said. The reason I said that they don’t mean quite the same thing is that in my experience when someone says “I did the best I could”, what they mean but aren’t saying explicitly is “I did the best I could in the circumstances”.

For example, in preparing dinner I did the best I could with the ingredients available in the refrigerator, but if I’d had time to go to the supermarket I could have bought more ingredients to cook something much nicer. Or in running a race I did the best I could given that I had the flu, but usually I’m a better runner than that. I will explain what I was thinking, though in preparing this answer I may have talked myself into accepting that there is no difference in meaning.

The issue is I thought that with the superlative form of an adverb we should use the article “the” (“the most” or “the best”, e.g.). Using a dependent clause to live happily eliminates the need for using a preposition, where usage can get quite complicated. The best way to ruin a first date is by talking about yourself too much. The best way to use “the best way” is to follow it with an infinitive. I did my best – Self affirmation, or reassurance that one has given something their best effort and can feel good about that effort.