"'Be Best' just so plainly doesn’t hold up to the laws of English grammar, which require that a superlative adjective following an imperative verb be preceded by the definite article 'the.' Be good – be better – be the best: that’s the rule. In the 1990s, the British military ran a TV ad campaign that ended with the slogan: 'Army soldier: be the best.' Try it without the the. 'Army soldier: be best.' It sounds like you’re translating from the Sanskrit. How was the unfortunate name conceived? Could it have been [Melania] Trump, surrounded by administration flunkies, in a brainstorming session in Washington, floating 'Be Best' as a potential campaign name – and the assembled coterie being too polite – afraid, even – to correct her? Or was it some inside joke about [Melania] Trump’s English? (The first lady’s native Slovenian, like most Slavic tongues, Bulgarian and Macedonian excepting, has no definite articles.)"
From "'Be Best': does Melania Trump's oddly named initiative break the laws of grammar?/A Guardian copy editor unpacks the central grammatical flaw in the first lady’s new campaign. Is this [the] best the White House can do?" (The Guardian).
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Don't be second best. Be best.
It's okay for me.
Be best in a Zsa Zsa accent announces it's a bad translation; but be best is okay in ordinary English, in a native accent, which directs the listener to the idiom it comes from.
If you're not first, you're last!
How do you say "go fuck yourself" in the four languages, other than English, that she speaks fluently?
The Guardian, huh? Is this a guy who went to university? And when sick goes to hospital? Hardly one to tell someone how to speak the English.
Be good.
Be better.
Be best.
Bad advice for a Beatles Halloween costume?
Fuck best. I'm taking the day off.
I never felt that celebration of First Ladies was necessary, but after eight years of press slobbering over Michelle Obama, a modicum of decency would be strongly preferred. Sad.
Didn't Scott Adams comment on intentionally including mistakes, so as to draw attention what you said?
Grauniad. So called because the paper has even misspelled its own name.
I had a thought similar to Hardin in the first comment. And as for “what kind of slogan”, perhaps not a hackneyed one?
That said, isn’t the grammar that makes this kinda dumb. It's the bland emptiness of it.
"Be brown slave" was rejected early in the motto evaluation process.
Be best meme coming up!
"Didn't Scott Adams..." Yeah, me too. This is a good slogan. Ignore pedants who don't know how to write slogans.
Compared to Michelle, Melania is superlative.
This slogan works. It's good.
Well we should all follow American Cultural rules like that shaved down baboon April Ryan.
Make Ebonics the official language.
It’s most like so much from this White House.
"Eat Healthy"
Why should First Ladies have to have causes?
With Eleanor it probably came naturally, but the later ones have all seemed contrived.
Blogger roesch/voltaire said...
It’s most like so much from this White House.
Yes, inspiring.
Hillary has only the chardonnay wineries on her side anymore.
Be bigly.
MK: "Hillary has only the chardonnay wineries on her side anymore."
Not true. She also has some sort of brace on her side..and her back...and I'm assuming her front.
But there is nothing wrong with her. Just a bit of dehydration.
"Be Frequent Visitor To Wisconsin" was also derided by the dems...
Who, whom.
This criticism is so Woke.
The Grauniad is critiquing?
so as to draw attention what you said
"Be the Best" would also be totally forgettable.
Be all you can be...even if it's second best.
I compare and contrast the current First Lady's initiative with the last one: "The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act." For the children! Without any hunger, and free!
Be best clearly means be your best self. Don’t settle for your good for nothing, asshole self. It is a direct attack on Progresive Democrats.
As if Guardian cares about anything other than diminishing First Lady and destroying President of United States. I fart in Guardian general direction.
I've seen retail ads where a company sells goods of three levels of quality, designated Good, Better, and Best.
Be Best!
Me like slogan. It good.
Saying "be the best" would probably have been criticized for suggesting elitism, unfair competition, white supremacism, isolationism, you name it. What she meant is more along the lines of "to thine own self be true" and "aim for the best version of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially," neither of which fits on a t shirt. "Be best" is a good conversation starter. "Be the best" is a conversation killer.
Interestingly, "Be Best" is an amazingly hopeful mantra. It contains the revelation that you are the best and need to continue to be yourself. It sums up the message to us in the first Chapter of First Peter in two words. If you don't believe, me read it for yourself.
Think Different.
(nails on chalkboard)
I don't understand why it's not Be Your Best.
"I don't understand why it's not Be Your Best."
Maybe that is your fault, not hers ?
So the slogan is following more of the advertising or newspaper slogan of omitting of function/helper words. The definite article here, while grammatically correct, also in some sense limits the rather indefinite message of the slogan - Be [the] Best [X] or Be [your] Best.
It's a neat little slogan - it aims at excellence while allowing the hearer to determine what constitutes their personal best. Sappy and sentimental? Probably, but if a first lady wants to do something, a generic message encouraging personal excellence is not a bad thing to try so long as this doesn't require a government bureaucracy to regulate, promote, and administer it. The last thing this country needs is the Be Best Bureau of Bureaucrats (BBBB).
The grammarians here want her to order people to "be your best." But Melania is instead giving the kids a mantra they can repeat to themselves. Be Best! They must learn for themselves what is best is in every situation from wise adult teachers.
Maybe that is your fault, not hers ?
well it's not a big deal either way. Russian & some eastern European languages don't have articles, so I wondered if that was why. The initiative sounds like a good cause.
Me and my homies* here in the homeless shelter found "You didn't build that" to be not only grammatically correct, but quite motivating.
*I know, I know-- "my homies and I"
Crotchety sticklers don't realize that Melania appeals to non-native speakers.
Why don't *concerned* grammarians concern themselves with the erosion of subjunctive verbs forms from the press? "Alleged" becomes fact according to mood swing.
It’s a poke at the everybody gets a trophy crowd and that burn soaks in while they’re still bitching about the grammar.
Right, because slogans never break grammar rules to be pithy.
Technically, it's wrong, but I have no problem with it. Dropping the the makes it more alliterative. It rolls off the tongue better and is more memorable.
It's marketing, this sort of error encourages attention. Mission accomplished.
Think Different.
I'm not going to complain so long as she doesn't use "I" when "me" is correct.
-sw
Boy it's amazing how many words they can whip up for "Melania has kooties."
Maybe she wrote the dossier. It reads like Boris Badinov.
Huh. People get paid to write pissy tripe like that?
I swear it seems more every day like Trump pays them to write stuff like this.
I think somebody missed the quotation marks.
"Be Best" I like it.
Blogger Caldwell Titcomb IV said...
Eat Healthy"
5/8/18, 7:52 PM
--
AKA Eat This
All slogans must be in complete sentences.
As far as slogans, it's really what you do leading up to it. "Be smart. Be strong. Be true. Be best."
You really think "Out of milk?" would've been better than Got milk?
It's 2018, o Guardian prescrptivist.
Much grammar, so change.
Be best.
They forgot that "to be" is also a verb and not only a copula?
I think Melania is exquisite. I cringed at "Be Best". My guess is that nobody wanted to correct her charming bad grammar. <-- My Best shot at it.
It’s simple and direct. Which is the only law actively enforced by listeners.
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