高い in this sentence seems redundant


So in this sentence "最も効果の高い頭痛薬はどれですか" Which according to Kanshudo, translates
to "What's your strongest type of headache pill?", 最も seems to fill the role
of 高い and it seems redundant?

Can anyone explain to me why it would be used this way, and why Japanese seems
to use a lot of words in some sentences that can translate to one word in
English? I'm JLPT N4 and still trying to come to an understanding of how
"good" translation works.




There are a couple of things going on here.

First, you could certainly say the following.

> 効果の高い頭痛薬はどれですか

That would translate to

> Which of _your_ headache medicines are highly effective?

If you were instead to drop 高い, then you're left with an _ungrammatical_
sentence

> 最も効果..??..頭痛薬はどれですか

First, how are you going to connect 効果 with 頭痛薬? You need some kind of _glue_
here. Without 高い you'd need to have some other kind of _connector_.

But also, 最も is not describing 効果; it's an adverb. 最も is modifying 高い.

From this perspective,

> 最も効果の高い頭痛薬はどれですか

can be rendered

> Which of _your_ headache medicines are the most highly effective?

Consider Kanshudo's translation, which you provided,

> What's your _strongest_ type of headache pill?

Notice that _strongest_ is a superlative. This is a grammatical feature of
English that does not exist in Japanese. I'm not saying these ideas can't be
expressed. Obviously they can, but there is no form an adjective can take to
express this idea in Japanese. And even in English we have adjectives which
also lack a superlative for: For example, consider the adjective _excellent_.
You can't say "excellent _est_ ". To get the idea of a superlative you need a
paraphrastic expression like "most excellent".

That's basically what's happening in the Japanese. たかい just means _high_. But,
もっともたかい expresses the idea of _higher_ or _highest_ (translation depending on
usage).




There are a couple of things going on here.

First, you could certainly say the following.

> 効果の高い頭痛薬はどれですか

That would translate to

> Which of _your_ headache medicines are highly effective?

If you were instead to drop 高い, then you're left with an _ungrammatical_
sentence

> 最も効果..??..頭痛薬はどれですか

First, how are you going to connect 効果 with 頭痛薬? You need some kind of _glue_
here. Without 高い you'd need to have some other kind of _connector_.

But also, 最も is not describing 効果; it's an adverb. 最も is modifying 高い.

From this perspective,

> 最も効果の高い頭痛薬はどれですか

can be rendered

> Which of _your_ headache medicines are the most highly effective?

Consider Kanshudo's translation, which you provided,

> What's your _strongest_ type of headache pill?

Notice that _strongest_ is a superlative. This is a grammatical feature of
English that does not exist in Japanese. I'm not saying these ideas can't be
expressed. Obviously they can, but there is no form an adjective can take to
express this idea in Japanese. And even in English we have adjectives which
also lack a superlative for: For example, consider the adjective _excellent_.
You can't say "excellent _est_ ". To get the idea of a superlative you need a
paraphrastic expression like "most excellent".

That's basically what's happening in the Japanese. たかい just means _high_. But,
もっともたかい expresses the idea of _higher_ or _highest_ (translation depending on
usage).

