Why is 「で」 in 「三人のうちで一番...」 omissible but 「で」 in 「ここで待つ」 not?

Are there any rough guidelines regarding whether a particle can be omitted or
not?
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2015-02-01T14:22:12.613
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question
particles ellipsis
Why is 「で」 in 「三人のうちで一番...」 omissible but 「で」 in 「ここで待つ」 not?
It's all a question of necessity.

In 「三人の中で」, で is expressing not a physical location so much, but rather a
mental map of where something lies. In the case of 「ここで」, as ここ is a tangible
(albeit relative) place, particles aren't be dropped after it, no matter what
they are.

The rules vary from particle to particle.

を can be dropped in nearly every case where it's showing the receiver of an
action.

> オレンジ（を）食べる
>
> 写真（を）見る

It can't be dropped in cases of showing movement

> 道を歩きます

が can usually be dropped unless it's important so that the sentence makes
sense

> 彼女の笑顔、一番美しいのです

BUT

> Ａ：誰が彼を教えましたか。
>
> Ｂ：私が教えた。

This above sentence NEEDS が because grammatically the rules require it when
questions contain が. In most other cases, though, it's okay to drop

に (and by extension へ) is usually kept in all cases, because it's pretty
important in showing the direction of travel for people and/or objects.

> 彼にプレゼントを貰いました。
>
> 仕事に行きました or 仕事へ行きました

In reference to your initial question, で is usually kept if it shows where
something happened (i.e. where you waited) just as に is kept for travel. But,
in the case of showing that from a selection, x is the most y, it's usually
okay to drop, because it's not giving an indication of physical location. You
also need to keep で if you're saying that you did something a certain way
e.g.:

> 車で学校に行きました。

The rules are a bit more awkward than this at times, but these cover most
things. You'll always be better off just listening to Japanese being spoken
and hearing what other people do and what sounds the most "natural", which you
eventually get a good sense of at some stage in your learning : )
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answer
It's not really that で is omitted, but うち is diverted to something like
"conjunction" or "preposition" in English. It can lead a full sentence ("
_sentence_ (終止形) + うち") or a noun phrase (" _NP_ + のうち") to make an
**adverbial clause** (sentence adverb) that means " _in the course of; within_
". Sometimes, you can reword them using plain noun うち.

> **" adverbial" うち vs. "ordinary" うち**
>
> 学校に通う **うち** 、嫌でなくなってきた。 = 学校に通う **うちに** 、嫌でなくなってきた。  
>  三人の **うち** 一番背が高い。 = 三人の **うちで** 一番背が高い。  
>  乗客の **うち** 3名死亡、5名負傷 = ( _no equivalent_ )  
>  ( _no equivalent_ ) = 城壁の **うちを** 歩いて点検する。

Many other "formal nouns" (形式名詞) that refer to place or time, provide similar
usage; なか "in/amidst ...", うえ "as well as ...", もと "under ...", とき "when ...",
ところ "despite ..." etc., which more or less sound more high-register-ish or
formal than the noun + postposition form equivalent (if any).

Some ordinary nouns (結果, あげく, 瞬間 ...) are gradually acquiring such usages,
according to [this recent
research](http://www.ninjal.ac.jp/event/specialists/project-
meeting/files/JCLWorkshop_no3_papers/JCLWorkshop_No3_12.pdf).
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answer