Lets fill water in our mouth and squirt it out to see whose squirt goes the farthest.

[tufguy]

1) Lets fill water in our mouth and squirt it out to see whose squirt goes the farthest. (There are more than two people)

2) Lets fill water in our mouth and squirt it out to see whose squirt goes the farther. (There are only two people)

Please check my sentences. Is my usage of "farthest" and "farther" correct?

 

[tufguy]

What a great start to the day.

What happened? Is there anything wrong?

 

[Rover_KE]

... and I keep wishing you'd spend more time reading books and magazines in English and asking us questions about situations you encounter in real life.

 

[GoesStation]

Actually I think this one is a real-life question. Didn't you ever have a contest to see who could spit a mouthful of water the furthest when you were a kid? (Tufguy, that last sentence has a hint for you.)

 

[GoesStation]

You don't fill water in your mouth. You ​fill your mouth with water.

 

[GoesStation]

I myself see nothing wrong with 'farther' or 'farthest'.

I considered furthest and farthest and decided I'd be most likely to say "furthest". I didn't notice that Tufguy had written farthest. I think people in my area might use either word.

 

[tufguy]

Actually I think this one is a real-life question. Didn't you ever have a contest to see who could spit a mouthful of water the furthest when you were a kid? (Tufguy, that last sentence has a hint for you.)

1) Lets fill our mouth with water and spit it out to see who can spit the farthest. (There are more than two people)

2) Lets fill our mouth with water and spit it out to see who can spit the farther. (There are only two people)

 

[GoesStation]

1) Let's fill our mouth with water and spit it out to see who can spit the farthest. :tick: (There are more than two people)

2) Let's fill our mouth with water and spit it out to see who can spit [strike]the[/strike] farther. :tick: (There are only two people)

Either sentence is possible as long as at least two people are involved. Use the definite article with the superlative ("farthest") but not with the comparative ("farther").

As I hinted in post #6, a native speaker would say something like Let's see who can spit a mouthful of water the farthest. You can hardly spit a mouthful of water without filling your mouth with water first, so most people wouldn't think to mention that part. Come to think of it, kids might very well go to that level of detail; if you're trying to learn adult-level English, you should be more economical.