"Which do you like best?" or "Which do you like most?"

Is there any difference in usage between these two sentences?

• Which do you like best?
• Which do you like most?

I've read there is a slight difference in usage - a subtlety - and would like to hear what native speakers have to say about it in 2014.

Solution 1:

I don't know what you've read, but I can give you a native speaker's take on it.

Which do you like best?

I would use the above to ask for someone's advice on which they preferred of three or more choices, where the 'ranking' might go from least preferred to best. (this one, not at all, these two are ok, this one is very nice, but this one I like best.) In other words, good < better < best.

Most seems to me to connote a larger sample from which to choose. It is also asking more (to my way of thinking) for shades of interpretations instead of an authoritative opinion. Best limits the choices and the answer seems final.

What kind of books do you like most?

I can see an answer like, I like sci-fi and mysteries.

However, I think that they are used fairly interchangeably.

Solution 2:

This is what I've read on the subject:

"Which do you like best?" and "Which do you like most?" are both acceptable. The former is probably the more usual when applied to things and people that we like on account of some quality they possess, so that we think of one as being better than another, the latter when liking is more a matter of mere preference on our own part than an implied comparison between the qualities or characteristics of the things amongst which we have to choose: e.g. "Which would you like most, to write a best seller, to win a fortune on the football pools, or to rise to the top of your profession?"> 1. Current English Usage, Frederick T. Wood, Macmillan and Co ltd, London, 1961.