student asking question

When writing letters, what's the main difference between "dear" and "dearest?"

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Remember that the suffix -est is used to form the superlative of adjectives and adverbs. Thus, you would use "dearest" to refer to people you hold most dear, that you treasure the most. It's a bit old-fashioned to use this now, and is more commonly used when writing letters. Ex: My dear, how have you been recently? Ex: Ellen is my dearest friend.

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