student asking question

Isn't "the" necessary in front of "most" here?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Great question. "Most" can be used as both a superlative and an intensifier. In this case it is being used as a superlative, meaning of all the cities under consideration, this one has the greatest number. In formal usage, you would almost always want to use the definite article the with a superlative, the exception bring for possessive constructions, which is the case here. Because we are using "Canada's", a possessive form, it would be grammatically incorrect to put "the" before "most". Ex: John's most important job is filing. Ex: The most important job is filing. Note that in conversation, you may often notice that native speakers leave out "the" but remember that it is implied Ex: I like this one [the] most.

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