# Why is 一番おいしい grammatical?

The phrase 一番おいしい means "number one delicious" or "the most delicious". But 一番
is a noun and おいしい is an い-adjective, and as far as I know

> (Noun)(い-adjective)

isn't grammatical in Japanese, right? So is this a special case where 一番おいしい
should just be thought of as a single い-adjective which means something like
"number-one-most-delicious", rather than a noun merged with an い-adjective?

# Understanding why 世界の一番おいしい isn't grammatical

From a [Cure Dolly video](https://youtu.be/OiKgudW9xB8) on the usage of the で
particle, it's stated that

> このラーメンは世界の一番おいしい

is grammatically incorrect, since (in the narrator's own words):

> Japanese words only modify words that come after them.
>
> They can't modify words that come before them.
>
> And because -no can't modify "oishii",
>
> it can only modify "raamen", which is another noun,
>
> and because "raamen" is on the wrong side of it, we can't actually use that.

But isn't 一番 a noun? So couldn't we parse this as

> (世界の一番)(おいしい)

where (世界の一番) is modifying (おいしい)?
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2022-09-05T19:08:17.933
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2022-09-05T19:48:49.770
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question
grammar i-adjectives
Understanding 「一番おいしい」