Expert: Alicia Casuso - 10/18/2005

Question
What makes this special? Is it the adjective mejor or the sentence itself?

I wrote this,as a joke on a chalk board and was corrected(much to my embarrasment). Afterwards I thought of many other ways I could have said it but I am still wondering why it is wrong.

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Followup To
Question -
Is the wording in this sentence correct? John es mi yerno mejor! Meaning John is my best son-in-law.
Answer -
John,

If you´re trying to say that he is your "best son-in-law" like you say someone is your "best friend", then you would say "John es mi mejor yerno". This is possibly one of the very few cases in which the adjective must precede the noun in Spanish.

But if you´re trying to say that he is your favorite son-in-law, then better say "John es mi yerno preferido".

Hope that helps!

Alicia

Answer
As a matter of fact, yes, I'm quite sure it is the adjective "mejor".  The same happens with "gran" (but not "grande"), and I'm sure others that I can't remember right now.

Remember that in Spanish you can always place the adjective in front of the noun and it is grammatically correct.  Only it will sound so weird as, for example, if in English someone used "thou" instead of "your" all the time.  It is only used purposefully in literature.

Alicia