多、好、最

好 before a feeling word means "so" or "really", and it comes out loaded. It's the voice of someone screaming over a puppy video, not the voice of a neutral opinion. 很 just states the fact: 我很喜欢这个电影 is safe in a work chat or in front of your partner's parents. Drop 我好喜欢 there and it reads childish, flirty, or like a joke. In Taiwan, 好 is the plain everyday word for "very" — 好漂亮, 好吃, 好喜欢 — and nobody hears drama in it. On the mainland it swings cute. One more trap: in front of a noun, 好 means "good", not "so". 好电影 is a good movie. Nobody is saying "so movie".

English stacks the amount in front of the noun: "I have many friends." Chinese gives you two clean shapes, and neither one is 我很多朋友. Shape one is a real sentence with a verb: 我有很多朋友. Shape two is a comment, where 多 sits after the noun like a description: 我朋友很多. Kill the 有 and shove 很多 straight behind 我, and the sentence has no engine left. Bare 多 in front of a noun fails too — 多朋友 sounds like a sentence someone cut in half. Use 很多, 好多, or 挺多 instead.

很 means "very". 最 means "the most", and it puts your choice on top of a list, even when that list only exists in your head. 我很喜欢看老电影 means you're a fan. 我最喜欢看黑白老电影 means that out of everything you watch, this one wins. 最 also glues itself to the very next word, so it never drifts to the end of the sentence the way English "the most" does. And never stack the two — 最很喜欢 is like putting two volume knobs on one radio. “我最喜欢看黑白老电影。” ── [《你喜欢看老电影吗？》](/read/do-you-like-old-movies#s14)