Why are we adding de in front of mieux in the sentence il n’y a rien de mieux que d’’ouvrir.....
Use of de in front of mieux
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manpreet kaur j.Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor
Use of de in front of mieux
This question relates to:French writing exercise "The pleasure of traditional mail"
Asked 3 years ago
Kwiziq Q&A regular contributorCorrect answer
Salut, I think this is because 'de' follows 'rien'. i.e. 'rien de' = nothing, 'rien d'intéressant' = nothing interesting, 'rien d'autre' = nothing else, and so on. Therefore 'il n'y a rien de mieux que ...' means there is nothing better than ...
Matthew
Jim J. Kwiziq Q&A super contributor
Hi Manpreet Kaur,
à défaut de mieux loc adv(sans meilleur choix)Pure speculation on my part, but the above was copied from Word Reference where "de mieux" appears in that text - this indicates that "de mieux" does have a role to play so perhaps another contributor can add more and then we will both be the wiser.
Jim
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