Adjective

the second. the remotEST

"I promise not to say anything with EVEN the REMOTEST chance of affecting anyone's sensitivities"

post 2 is good, or

I promise not to say anything that has even the remotest chance of offending anyone's sensibilities.

The real problem, Red_Rose, is not with the choice between most remote and remotest, but with the grammatical structure. The use of "with the" leads the reader in the wrong direction.

In a sentence like "I would never say anything with the intent of hurting you," "with the intent" refers to the intent of the subject, "I."

In your examples, though, "with the" refers not back to the subject, as the reader might expect, but to the words spoken, thus being a cause of at least momentary confusion.

Of the choices you offer, I like "remotest," but would prefer "even the remotest," as in the suggestion of anolizama.

Note that anolazima has written "that has...the" rather than "with the." The word "that" makes it clear that it is the words spoken that are being referred to, not the speaker.

(I hope this is not too confusing!)

{quote:title=NorthAmerican wrote:}{quote}
The real problem, Red_Rose, is not with the choice between most remote and remotest, but with the grammatical structure. The use of "with the" leads the reader in the wrong direction.

In a sentence like "I would never say anything with the intent of hurting you," "with the intent" refers to the intent of the subject, "I."

In your examples, though, "with the" refers not back to the subject, as the reader might expect, but to the words spoken, thus being a cause of at least momentary confusion.

Of the choices you offer, I like "remotest," but would prefer "even the remotest," as in the suggestion of anolizama.

Note that anolazima has written "that has...the" rather than "with the." The word "that" makes it clear that it is the words spoken that are being referred to, not the speaker.

(I hope this is not too confusing!)

I take your point...but this still seems very persnickety. Let's cut the non-native speakers a break, for heaven's sake. "That has...the" is slightly more precise, but the intended meaning was perfectly clear in the sentence as written.

I'm at one with North American and anolazima on this. I also found OP's sentence a bit confusing and it took me a moment to figure out that she meant nobody was to be offended.

I tutored English to immigrants for ten years as a volunteer, and I never liked the idea that a word or phrase was "good enough" when it wasn't precisely what was intended. (I was an editor for 30 years, so I was accustomed to clarifying the English of native speakers to the extent that I could.)

Both of the examples given by Red_Rose are understandable, but neither is as clear as it might be. I offered my comments at #4 as instruction and suggestions, not as commands.

My old American Heritage Dictionary agrees with the earlier posters that it's "remotest" not "most remote". It seems to me that I have seen EFL books saying that -er and -est are just for monosyllables and two-syllable words ending in -y (e.g. prettiest). The rule must be more complicated than that.

I would use "the least remote". Months ago I was wondering about more/most vs -er/-est. Still am.