use of supreme

Question

Example:Although wheat products reign supreme on the shelves of supermarkets in the United States

Question: Does supreme here use as an adjective word?
How do I use supreme to make sentences? Any example for me to remember supreme ?

Hrsanei · Accepted Answer

Hi,
Yes, "supreme" is an adjective.
In the phrase " reign supreme" , "supreme" is used as a post positive adjective which is the term used for adjectives that modify the noun before them.
But "supreme" simply means "the best/greatest"
Ex. Supreme Courage/ importance

Hamid

GPY · Answer

hrsaneiwhich is the term used for adjectives that modify the noun before them.

"reign" is actually a verb there, not a noun, so functionally "supreme" is somewhat like an adverb. I would have a hard time knowing which to call it -- adjective or adverb.

"reign supreme" is more or less a set phrase.

Fivejedjon · Answer

GPY"reign" is actually a verb there, not a noun, so functionally "supreme" is somewhat like an adverb. I would have a hard time knowing which to call it -- adjective or adverb.

I'd say it modifies 'he'. It is he who is supreme, not his reigning.

Philip · Answer

hrsaneiBut "supreme" simply means "the best/greatest" Ex. Supreme Courage/ importance

Also: Supreme Court of the United States, familiarly known as SCOTUS.

Hrsanei · Answer

Thank you GPY. It was indeed my blunder to call reign a "noun" in that context.
However, no dictionary recognizes "supreme" as an adverb even in that phrase.
Hamid

GPY · Answer

I feel sure that the terminology surrounding these "verb + adjective" combinations has been discussed here before, but I cannot now find the relevant thread(s).*

It seems to me that there are certain cases, such as with the traditional "linking verbs", where the second word is definitely an adjective. For example, "feel ill". Then there are cases where the second word is is definitely an adverb, such as "work hard". Then there are intermediate cases, of which "reign supreme" may (in my opinion) be one, which are (for me) harder to call.

* I found one thread here:

https://www.EnglishForward.com/English/IsUnhinderedAdjectiveAdverb/bgxlrk/post.htm

Fivejedjon · Answer

As I have made fairly clear over the years, I am not a great fan of grammatical labels. They can be useful as a convenient shorthand, but when they become a subject of debate in themselves, I lose interest. Such debates may be of importance to those studying linguistics, but do little to help, and may confuse, people trying to learn English.

So, people trying to learn English should ignore this post.

For some reason, 'reign supreme' has piqued my interest. Unfortunately, I am at the moment 1,376.6 kilometres (855.4 miles) from my beloved bookshelf of grammars, so what follows is just personal opinion.

GPYThen there are intermediate cases, of which "reign supreme" may (in my opinion) be one, which are (for me) harder to call.

I'd be interested to know of any other cases that you think are 'intermediate. Perhaps the linguistics forum would be a good place to discuss this.

Personally, I have no problem at all with the 'adjective' label for supreme in reign supreme. Copulas (linking verbs) link the subject of a sentence with a predicate (subject complement). Copulas may be devoid of semantic content, as in Fred was silent, or bear semantic content, as in Fred kept silent, Fred proved incompetent and Fred fell ill.

The verb reign means, in itself, something like be supreme, predominate/prevail. The expression reign supreme may therefore be considered by purists to be tautologous but, given its rather reduced idea of predominance in such sentences as A great quiet reigned over the valley, the wide acceptance of this tautology is not surprising (96 of the COCA citations for reigned are for sentences with reigned supreme). It seems to me, as I suggested in my last post, that in sentences with reign supreme, the word supreme is modifying the subject of the sentence, not the verb

One of the incidental problems in discussing this is that, while verbs such as keep, prove and fall are used as a copular with many adjectives reign is used in this way almost exclusively with supreme (of 102 COCA citations for reigned + adjective, 96 are for reigned supreme). So, unfortunately for my case, REIGN supreme is probably best considered as a one-off idiomatic usage. It is difficult to assign a part-of-speech label to supreme when that word is virtually the only 'adjective' that can collocate with the verb.

Philip · Answer

I can live with (all) that.  And even agree with most.

GPY · Answer

fivejedjonI'd be interested to know of any other cases that you think are 'intermediate.

I think I may have meant "debatable" rather than "intermediate".

"sit up straight", "burn bright", "sleep tight".

Fivejedjon · Answer

GPYI think I may have meant "debatable" rather than "intermediate"."sit up straight", "burn bright", "sleep tight"

I need a few hours' sleep before I can begin to think about those!

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