grammar - word order in superlatives: "She booked the earliest flight to London she could." or "She booked the earliest flight she could to London."?

What is the correct (Ooops, I'm afraid it's me again! rule-o-cratic French speaker), preferred, then, word order in a superlative?

"She booked the earliest flight she could back to London."

or

"She booked the earliest flight back to London she could."

Or neither, the sentence sounding awkward anyway… How would you put it then?

Answer

As to rules, several have already applied in both of these sentences

• She booked the earliest flight she could back to London.


• She booked the earliest flight back to London she could.

To start with, let's put back most of the deleted words

• She booked the earliest flight that she could book that goes back to London.


• She booked the earliest flight that goes back to London that she could book.

Note that there are two relative clauses modifying flight

• the earliest flight that she could book


• the flight that goes back to London

They are both a result of the superlative construction, listing its two boundary conditions:

1. she was able to book the flight


2. the flight goes to London

Given these conditions, the superlative earliest refers solely to time of departure.

The order in which several relative clauses that modify the same antecedent may appear
in a sentence is open; this is a matter for the speaker's judgement, as usual.