General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEnglish teachers: Is there any grammatical situation where, "Be best" is correctly used?
Usually a "THE" is inserted between those 2 words.
"Be best in your field"
Um NO
Seriously, did no one look at these 2 words and not notice that it is grammatically incorrect?
Unless someone can show me how it could be? I will assert I am not "the best" when it comes to grammar.
unblock
(52,205 posts)True Dough
(17,303 posts)and I think that be best under the circumstances.
Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)I'm tho confused.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)U asked if 'be best' is ever grammatically correct, this is an example of how it could be used, and be 'correct'.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Not english-teacher here, but there is no period at the end. That means, it's not a sentence, just a string of words. So, ordinary grammar doesn't apply.
The motto sounds weird but is okay.
Here's another example:
"be hungriest"
"drive angriest"
"print smallest"
It works.
NCTraveler
(30,481 posts)I am a grammatical train-wreck. Not sure if my sentence above qualifies as accurate.
It doesnt need to be grammatically correct as a slogan. Its not a sentence.
Got milk.
It just needs to be catchy.
Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)get what you and others are saying that it is not a sentence so it doesn't have to be grammatically correct.
I remember an ad campaign for, (I think) bananas. It said, "Bananas, the world's perfect food"
That sentence bothered the heck out of me. I thought the word, "most" should be in front of "perfect". Otherwise they were saying that the world only had one perfect food. Hey, I guess that is what they were saying!
Again me:
marylandblue
(12,344 posts)My problem with the slogan is not the grammar, but ithat it's generic. Be best at what? Her husband is the best at twitter insults. Also many people say the best President in history. Do those count?
kentuck
(111,082 posts)Exotica
(1,461 posts)samnsara
(17,622 posts)Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)brush
(53,771 posts)We don't need English-as-a-second-language-sounding slogans out of the WH.
There's already enough claptrap coming out of this administration.
They need to BE BETTER.
Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)Hell, linguists are loving how language is working these days. There's such a fast pace of evolution of it that normally happens over generations of speakers that they're busier than ever.
I wish I still had a link to some of the articles about it. It was fascinating in how they were seeing such easily identifiable trends in language shifts in near real time.
edit: here's one
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/booksblog/2017/dec/07/internet-online-news-social-media-changes-language
brush
(53,771 posts)Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)as a second language would say. But she is surrounded by people whose first language is English so it shouldn't happen
It sounds foreign.
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)If youre Frankenstein or Tarzan.
Bully bad! Fire bad! Be best!
Otherwise its just semi-coherent gobbledygook.
eShirl
(18,490 posts)implied is, in comparison to others
in essence, be superior
louis-t
(23,292 posts)Then again, look who came up with it.
eShirl
(18,490 posts)words of encouragement to a teen student leaving to take exams
louis-t
(23,292 posts)Just not something that is likely to catch on.
Blue_Adept
(6,399 posts)I can't think of any truly successful campaign beyond 'just say no' and we now how awful that was.
brush
(53,771 posts)No English-as-a-first-language editor/writer would ok that.
OTOH an English-as-a-second-language person...
Maraya1969
(22,479 posts)pnwmom
(108,977 posts)In either case, once again I feel sorry for Barron.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)Ron Obvious
(6,261 posts)Telling him "Be Best", would be correct.
stonecutter357
(12,695 posts)Golden Raisin
(4,608 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)English vocabulary and translations
it would be best (if you called her): the best thing to do would be, the best option would be (to call her)
idiom
it would be best that/if (you left): the most appropriate thing for you to do would be (to leave)
idiom
Examples
"Anyway, despite your commendable efforts, I have decided it would be best to hire the janitor through a cleaning agency."
https://www.gymglish.com/en/english-translation/it-would-be-best
comradebillyboy
(10,144 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)It's that double "b" that makes it sound.... unusual. Some combinations in English are just strange. Rubber baby buggie bumpers... it's the b's.
I think also the idea of "best" needs softening or it's kind of elitest. Just being best is like clawing to the top where only one person can fit or ruling the masses from the top of the pile.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)Missing a determiner , like be the best or be your best, or trump could be the worst ever , etc.
I think
IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)Demsrule86
(68,556 posts)was helped to say what her focus as a first lady would be in ungrammatical basically broken English...awful. Typical Trump administration shit...worst worst in our history. I could have written a better statement in any language using google translator.
IronLionZion
(45,433 posts)Unless the message was for Donald. Since she spoke about cyber-bullying, it might be for him.
HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)but what does it mean? A good slogan would point you in the direction of a behavior, a goal or a program. Be best at what? This is way too general. I mean her husband is the best, the best at lying. Does that count?
SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)Like "Me first" from a toddler is okay,
but from another standpoint, Melania should have worked with some savvy marketer who might have steered her to a phrase that was more "pleasing to the ear"....and who might have talked Donald's folks out of saying Melania "created" a document that was so easy to source..(and proved yet another lie)
no_hypocrisy
(46,086 posts)Best is usually an adjective or a verb. As a superlative, it is used to describe an action rather than a status. (John throws best or John throws the best.)
"Be best" is an incomplete thought and conveys no message, as opposed to "Do your best".
Alethia Merritt
(147 posts)Alethia Merritt
(147 posts)Thus, the sentence seems to be grammatically correct. It would just sound better if it were "Be the best."
planetc
(7,808 posts)Back in the dark ages, when I learned grammar, right after the teacher explained that a sentence must always have both a subject and a predicate, she explained that hortatory sentences have a subject that's understood rather than stated. So, the structure of hortatory sentences is: [You], Help me! or [You], Be best!
So the writer is perfectly within his or her grammatical rights to use a hortatory sentence, but an exclamation point would have helped. But even with one, many people would have jumped on it for being ungrammatical because it's socially acceptable to jump on Mrs. Trump. To the jumpers I say: Be Nice!
politicaljunkie41910
(3,335 posts)it wasn't the people who could have made a difference before the decision was made. Of course Melania probably doesn't think it was a mistake, because she owns it. But imagine what the response would have been if Michelle Obama had made "Be Best" the name of a FLOTUS program directed at young school age children. They would have tried to run her and her husband out of town for trying to ghetto-rize the nation's children and turning them into hood-lings with that kind of street talk, while undermining the values they were trying to teach them at home.