Use of de in front of mieux

Question

Why are we adding de in front of  mieux in the sentence il n’y a rien de mieux  que d’’ouvrir.....

Accepted Answer

Salut, I think this is because 'de' follows 'rien'. i.e. 'rien de' = nothing, 'rien d'intéressant' = nothing interesting, 'rien d'autre' = nothing else, and so on. Therefore 'il n'y a rien de mieux que ...' means there is nothing better than ... 
 
Matthew

Answer

Hi Manpreet Kaur,à défaut de mieux loc adv(sans meilleur choix)Pure speculation on my part, but the above was copied from Word Reference where "de mieux" appears in that text  -  this indicates that "de mieux" does have a role to play so perhaps another contributor can add more and then we will both be the wiser.Jim

Answer

qqc de mieu/pire/plus/... -- something better/worse/more/...