[Grammar] Is this sentence correct?- He is the best student.

[Sahil Dhankhar]

This is not my homework.

I think that "superlatives" should be used along with some context and if used alone as a "superlative", it will make the sentence incorrect. Have a look at the following sentence.

He is the best student.

I think that this sentence is incorrect as we have not stated the context for the superlative "best". This sentence would be right if it is written with some context as given below.

He is the best student in this class/batch/...
He is the best student that I know.

Am I right?

 

[Rover_KE]

As jutfrank has already asked you, please spend more time preparing, presenting [and checking] your posts.

There are two obvious spelling mistakes and one word that needs to be in quotation marks.

 

[Raymott]

This sentence would be [STRIKE]write[/STRIKE] right if it is written with some context as given below.

Am I right?

The sentence by itself is a good, grammatical sentence. Any isolated sentence like this needs a context, but that doesn't make the sentence incorrect.
"He is the best student" is inadequate as a strict proposition or concept, though, as you point out.

Cross-posted.

 

[jutfrank]

You have the right idea about meaning coming from context. However, the context need not necessarily be provided within the same sentence. It could come from anywhere.

 

[emsr2d2]

Consider the following:

My brother and I are in the same maths class at school. He is the best student. I am the worst.

The context makes it clear that "He is the best student" means "He is the best student in the maths class that he and I are in". It would, however, be entirely unnecessary to use the longer version when the five-word version conveys the idea perfectly.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

I have tried to correct them. Please check.

 

[Sahil Dhankhar]

So, in simple terms, "He is the best student.", if written alone anywhere is inadequate as it seems but not grammatically incorrect.

 

[GoesStation]

It's adequate in the right context. For example, in spoken American English it would be natural for someone to point out someone else while saying "He's the best student!" The heavy emphasis means the speaker is impressed by the student's skills and thinks he's a very good student (though, paradoxically, not necessarily the very best of all students).