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Is it correct, when talking about an achievement, to say something was:

"...one of the harder things I've done."

I know I should probably say:

"...one of the hardest things I've done"

But for some reason it almost feels correct to just say it in comparative. Any thoughts?

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  • is there any reason you think this is wrong? I assume it was your intention to change the meaning slightly, given that you have mentioned it's comparative
    – Gamora
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 10:42
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    Harder than what? Shouldn't the sentence be "...one of the hard things I've done" ?
    – Weather Vane
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 11:10
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    Possible duplicate of one of the more fascinating
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 11:53
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    As this chart shows, the construction one of the [superlative] is far more common than one of the [comparative]. But both forms are perfectly valid, and in practice they usually mean the same thing (superlative is just "more emphatic").
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 11:56
  • @WeatherVane: Harder than the things I've done that weren't as hard as the one being spoken of.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 11:58

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The correct sentence is: "..one of the hardest things I've done" You always use superlatives in this kind of sentence, when you are talking in general about the things you have ever done: like for example : "..one of the best " (instead it would be WRONG to say "one of the better")

If you were not talking in general, but comparing two peculiar situations you could say: "Doing this was harder than doing that"

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  • Many say it's not quite WRONG.
    – Lucian Sava
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 12:07
  • Incorrect; you can definitely say “that was one of the harder things that I have done.”
    – whiskeychief
    Commented Jul 31, 2019 at 13:16

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