almost OR most?

The words almost and most cause some confusion. This page shows the most important differences between them. Note that we do not show all meanings of these words.

almost

The word almost is an adverb. Its meaning is similar to "nearly".

almost all

People sometimes get confused with almost all, but it's really very simple. It simply means:
almost + all

Look at the example above: I know almost everyone here.

That is the same as saying: I know almost all the people here. (nearly all the people)

I know almost everyone here.
all the people
  Almost everything was destroyed.
all of the town

most

As an adjective, most means the "majority", the "largest part", "nearly all of". For example:

We also use most as a pronoun, with a similar meaning:

Don't confuse this meaning of most with the superlative, when we use most with adjectives and adverbs of more the one syllable:
  • big, bigger, the biggest
  • important, more important, the most important