There is no better a place on earth than my hometown.

[Shaant01]

"There is no better a place on earth than my hometown."

Is "a" necessary if the noun is singular or would it be superfluous?

Thanks!

 

[ContentExpert]

Is "a" necessary if the noun is singular?

No, you can redact the 'a' and it will read grammatically proper.

 

[anthox]

"There is no better place on earth than..." feels idiomatic to me, so much so that when I read your sentence and then your question, I had to go searching for the "a" in your sentence because I just glossed right over it.

 

[Shaant01]

"There is no better place on earth than..." feels idiomatic to me, so much so that when I read your sentence and then your question, I had to go searching for the "a" in your sentence because I just glossed right over it.

I feel like both are idiomatic, though you are right in this case. I've heard "no worse a position" and constructions like that before.

Would you say it is only grammatical without "a"?

 

[kentix]

I would say it's unidiomatic with the a.

I think it's not the same context as the no worse a position sentence.