Superlatives in Spanish

Question

How do I translate "Carla studies the most." as in the following sentence.

Maria studies more than Jim but Carla studies the most.

I understand comparatives, so

Maria studies more than Jim. is _{Maria estudia más que Jim.}

But the only formula that I know for Superlatives, is only in relation to adjectives.

For example

Mateo es el estudiante más inteligente. or Mateo es el más inteligente.

but in relation to verbs I'm confused.

For example

She sings the best.

She studies the most.

She plays the worse.

What is more confusing is that Google Translate gives the same Spanish comparative translation for both the English comparative and superlative translation.

Example

She studies more. _{Ella estudia más.}

She studies the most. _{Ella estudia más.}

UPDATE:

What about nouns? What is the superlative formula when dealing with nouns?

How would I translate the following

She won the most money.

Answer 1

Good question. Indeed, there is no such structure in Spanish. You should never try to translate things like "the things I like best", not in a literal way.

The formula is saying "is the one who [verb] más".

For example:

Carla studies the most → Carla is the one who studies the most

"Carla es la que más estudia" or "Carla es la que estudia más".

That's the easiest way. You can also say

Carla estudia (Como) la que más.

But I think that structure is more complicated.

Answer 2

For Carla studies the most you could plainly say

Carla es la que más estudia (de todos)

You could even phrase it as

Carla estudia la que más

Although this form is a little bit weird.

The second option is to say

Carla es la más estudiosa

So, with one option you would be saying

"she is the one that does this the most/best"

and with the other

"she is the most/best - insert adjective here -"

The adverb "más" can be used for both comparative and superlative.

Maria es más alta que Jim pero Carla es la más alta.

"Best" and "worse" can be translated respectively as "mejor" and "peor", so

Ella es la que mejor canta

Ella es la que peor toca

In She studies more (Ella estudia más)

that "más" indicates the degree that a property is greater or higher than other that is explicit or given by the context.

Ella estudia más ahora que antes. Ella estudia más que otros niños

She studies the most. uses a superlative. And you need to go with the forms "the most + adj." or "the one that does activity verb the most".

Don't trust Google Translate, even if they claim it is really really accurate. It is a soulless robot that doesn't really understand what is being said, and thus is prone to EPIC fails.