Articles and Superlatives – Using ‘Most’ with or without ‘The’?

articlesdefinite-articlesuperlatives

I thought we need "the" before the word most.
Such as in:

She is the most beautiful girl.

But, I came across this sentence:

Most incredible is how many Islamic scholars have popped up over the past few years.

Why isn't there "the" before the word "most" ? I know "the" is not needed if the word afterward is an adverb as in:

I like it most.

However, "incredible" isn't being used as an adverb here.

Best Answer

Adding to @GoDucks' nice answer, when most means very, exceedingly or extremely as an intensifier, you should not use the definite article the. It could be a better explanation because there is a case where the is not used even though there is a noun after "most + adjective", i.e.:

This is most dangerous procedure.

The above sentence doesn't mean that the procedure is the most dangerous procedure of all the procedures. It just indicates a degree of danger that the procedure carries.

Therefore, whenever you see the word most without articles, you could try to replace it with the intensifiers I suggested above, i.e.:

Most (very, exceedingly, extremely) incredible is how many Islamic scholars have popped up over the past few years.

This is most (very, exceedingly, extremely) dangerous procedure.

Related Topic