youngest,eldest and oldest

[fangyunying]

Welcome to the forums.

Please try to use proper English in here, including correct capitalization.

Your understanding of "small" does not match my understanding. My daughter had a friend who was very, very small due to a heart condition, but she was not particularly young despite being small, and she was as mature as any other child of her age. Small does NOT equal immature or not mature.

Thanks for the reminder. I search online and it gives me the definition of "small" as above. And may i know which part of my English that is seemed to be "improper"? Sorry,i am a learner here.

[5jj]

Thanks for the reminder. I search online and it gives me the definition of "small" as above.

'Small' can be used with this meaning in certain contexts, but it is generally used to refer to size. Please read posts # 7 and #10 again.

[philo2009]

So, you could say that your sister is the eldest in your family but not that she is the eldest member of her church? Do you have church elders in your church?

We in Britain would not normally speak of being the 'eldest member' of a church (although that is probably just as much for cultural as for linguistic reasons!) That said, however, the collocation is perfectly comprehensible.

[Barb_D]

fangyunying,
You CAN use "small" to mean "young" when it comes right before the noun "children."

This movie may be too frightening for small children. When travelling with small children, it's important to maintain their regular dinner time and bed time.

It does not work with the comparative. You would not say "Bigger children can see this movie, but smaller children cannot." You would use "older" and "younger."

You would never say "He is a smaller piano player than she is" to mean that he is younger. That sentence would say to any native speaker I know that he is shorter than she is.

To avoid causing any confusion, I would suggest you use "young children" instead of "small children" and most definitely use "younger" and "youngest" instead of "smaller" and "smallest" when referring to anything other than size.