help with breaking down this sentence: 私が今まで見た中で最も面白いもの

Question

私が今まで見た中で最も面白いもの

I (think?) understand the meaning of the sentence but I have a hard time understanding the grammar. My two questions are:

• What is the role of the で In mid sentence? I’ve been told that で particle can be used to specify the context to a verb which means it can only be used when there’s a verb in the sentence and I don’t see a verb here. The only other で That I know of is the transformed version of だ for compound sentences which I don’t think would make much sense here?

• Why use 私が Instead of 私は? Is there a specific reason/ what would it imply otherwise? I’m still new to particles so I have a hard time telling apart the exact conditions for using either of the two, so this might help me understand a bit more. (I do know the basics of the differences between が and は)

I found this somewhere on Twitter so it might not be abide by the grammar rules and if so I would like to see how it should be said in a way that’s grammatically correct.

Answer 1

This is a perfectly grammatical and perfectly natural noun phrase. It means "the funniest thing I've ever seen", or a bit more literally, "the funniest thing among the things which I have ever seen".

What is the role of the で In mid sentence?

As you say, で can mark various kinds of context (or scope, situation, condition). Examples include 合計で ("in total"), 1人で ("alone"), 家族で ("with one's family"), 最高で ("at most"), 仮定で ("hypothetically"), その上で ("taking this into consideration"), この村で ("in this village"), and so on. Since this で forms an adverbial expression, some can also modify an adjective.

• この村で最も強い戦士 the strongest warrior in this village
• 1人でも楽しい fun even when you're alone
• その上で高い expensive (even) after taking it into consideration

中で is an example of this.

Why use 私が Instead of 私は?

Have you already learned relative clauses? This 中 is technically a noun, and 私が今まで見た is a relative clause that modifies 中. Inside a relative clause, you basically cannot use は.