いちばん？

[JeanOfmArc]

This is in reference to Beginner Lesson #58:

One of the lines in this conversation is:
"せかいいちにぎやかなこうさてんですよ！"

Which is translated as:
"It's the world's most lively intersection!"

I'm a little curious about how this is constructed. In my text books, to say something is to the upmost, you say いちばん (adjective). So, from that, this would translate as:
"せかい(の/で)いちばんにぎやかなこうさてんです！"

But in the conversation, they just stick いち between せかい and にきやか and call it a day. How come there's no の (world's) or で (in the world) and then it is just いち not いちばん? Is there an explainable structure to this?

Thanks!!

[Psy]

Nope. No structure required. The word せかいいち (世界一) is itself a word meaning "the best in the world," and aside from sound it doesn't relate to the いちばん superlative grammar you learned. Since it's already an adverb it doesn't need another particle.

Good analysis/conjecture you did, though.

[JeanOfmArc]

Thank you Psy!
いつもとおり, your advice was very helpful.

By the way, in JapanesePod, Peter often says "いからず” (or at least that's what it sounds like) for "as always", but I can't find it in any dictionary... Is there a reason, or am I just mishearing it?

Thanks!

Jean Of mArc

[Javizy]

You can think of the suffix 一 as meaning '(the) best in'. Another couple of examples:

日本一 the best in Japan
チーム一の選手(せんしゅ) the best athlete in the team

最も(もっとも) 'the most' is another way to express superlatives:

日本で最も美しい村(むら) the most beautiful town in Japan

相変わらず (あいかわらず), one of Peter's favourites, is the phrase you're looking for. わ can be a bit hard to pick up sometimes in the middle of words.

[JeanOfmArc]

Thanks for all that extra information, Javizy! Everything like this really helps understand the language that is oh-so different than ol' English.