Grammatica - loco

10
Adverbs
10.1.2.2
Minder/minst ‘less/least’ are commonly used before adjectives in this way
too:
Dit is een minder interessant boek dan dat.
This is a less interesting book than that.
Maar dit boek is het minst interessant. 3
But this book is the least interesting.
But minst and derivatives of it also occur in other adverbial expressions:
niet in het minst
not in the least
minstens, tenminste, op z’n minst
at least
Note that althans commonly renders ‘at least’ as an adverbial conjunction
(see 12.3), but as a simple adverb it is usually interchangeable with
tenminste:
Hij is niet gekomen, althans ik heb hem niet gezien (or. . .ik
heb hem althans niet gezien) Hij is niet gekomen. Ik heb
hem tenminste niet gezien.
He hasn’t arrived; at least I haven’t seen him.
10.1.2.3
A common alternative to the superlative formed from het + st is that
formed from op z’n/hun mooist, where z’n is more usual in the spoken
language and hun is only possible when the subject is plural and belongs
more to the written language (see 8.1.1 (a)):
Deze struik is in mei op z’n mooist.
This shrub is (at its) prettiest in May.
De bollenvelden zijn in mei op z’n/hun mooist.
The bulb fields are prettiest in May.
op z’n best ‘at best’, op z’n vroegst ‘at the earliest’
Also: laatst, op het laatst ‘at last, in the end’; laatst can mean ‘lately’ too.
136 3 The superlative of the adjective here would be, i.e. het minst interessante with boek
understood.