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Goronsky Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

What does the bracketed [the] mean in this sentence?

Farah Stockman, a journalist for the Boston Globe who was in the airport at the time, https://twitter.com/fstockman/status/579090197440126977: "Just witnessed [the] craziest thing."

Thanks
  

Top answer

I wouldn't say it really means anything but it is needed because the craziest is a relative superlative. CB

— Cool Breeze

  • I wouldn't say it really means anything but it is needed because the craziest is a relative superlative.
  • CB
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7 Answers
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I wouldn't say it really means anything but it is needed because the craziest is a relative superlative.

CB
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Such square brackets often indicate that their contents were omitted in the original statement.
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Thank you.

For example, what was missing (do you think) in that particular sentence?
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I still don't understand but thanks anyway for trying to explain.
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goronskyFarah Stockman, a journalist for the Boston Globe who was in the airport at the time, tweeted : "Just witnessed [the] craziest thing."Thanks
Tweets have limited capacity for words, so people usually write them with fewer words than the equivalent spoken sentences.

The Boston Globe added the missing word 'the', placing it in brackets. As Clive
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Got it now .. thanks, CJ.
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