ELL's Cabin

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inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

20:00

LDOCE did/does have IPA, for both AmE and BrE.

Anonymous

@NathanTuggy For a technical reference on adjective phrases introduced by so appearing in predeterminer position before a, see The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, pages 435 and 550.

Nathan Tuggy

@snailboat I guess that's something for me to get, eventually....

Anonymous

You can always see if a library nearby you has a copy :-)

Nathan Tuggy

@snailboat Doesn't look like it.

Anonymous

Aw!

Nathan Tuggy

20:05

At least, unless they forgot to put their reference books in the online catalog, which seems improbable

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

Have you met the FLAWLESS book @Nathan?

Anonymous

worldcat.org

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

It's a must-buy.

Nathan Tuggy

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M What's that?

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Oh, no! I wouldn't recommend that book!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

20:08

@DamkerngT. It's a very nice book. . .

Anonymous

MAR is practicing the fine art of saying the opposite of what he means.

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

. . .About structures you should avoid.

Helllllooooo! It's called reverse psychology.

Nathan Tuggy

Very droll, I'm sure, but it would be more amusing if I had any idea what you were talking about...

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@NathanTuggy Read up!

Come now, if it was something serious, it would've taken me yonks to find it.

Nathan Tuggy

Well, the organization certainly leaves a good deal to be desired... :P

Anonymous

20:13

The key idea is that how/as/so/too/this/that ADJ can appear before a(n), just like you said. This position is called "predeterminer" position. (The article a(n) appears in "determiner" position.)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

@NathanTuggy It's our toy at least for now, until a better more FLAWLESS book comes around.

Anonymous

> [[How big] a company] is it?

Anonymous

> It was [[so serious] a matter that we called the police].

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

BTW I used to make use of this construction a lot.

Anonymous

In the case of so, it often licenses a subordinate clause marked by that, which is generally located at the end of clause.

Anonymous

20:14

> Don't make [[too big] a fuss].

Anonymous

Ah!

Anonymous

It looks like Damkerng has quoted the relevant portion of Swan's book!

Anonymous

I guess further citations aren't really necessary :-)

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

That's our @Dam.

God bless us when he posts his next answer.

Damkerng T.

@inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M Hehe!

inɒzɘmɒЯ.A.M

20:17

It's gonna start with PEU, end in PEU, and use Macmillan in the footnotes.

Burning hell.

4 hours later…

Damkerng T.

23:53

A: 'Suggest helping' vs 'Offer to help' - in reported speech

" C is awkward. He suggested helping Jane, to whom? – Damkerng T. 4 hours ago I agree with @DamkerngT. Answer C does a good job of capturing the meaning of> >the original quote, but it's not written in good English. It should say >something like, "John suggested that he could help Ja...