word order - "that a big deal" or "that big a deal"? - Part. 1

word order - "that a big deal" or "that big a deal"?

내가 듣기에는, 그렇게 큰 문제인 거 같지 않은데...

From what I hear, it doesn’t sound like that big a problem to me.

Ref) https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/105564/that-a-big-deal-or-that-big-a-deal

 

[Question]

"that a big deal" or "that big a deal"?

Asked 7 years, 9 months ago Modified 7 years, 3 months ago Viewed 8k times

 

Source From an episode of Friends at 00:01

.   Monica: Will you let it go? It's not that big a deal.

.   Ross: Not that big a deal? It's amazing! OK. Just reach in there and there's just one little manoeuvre bam! — a bra right out the sleeve.

 

I always believed ‘that a big deal’ to be correct until I watched this episode of 'Friends' series where It's 'not that big a deal' was used so frequently, I am now beginning to doubt my belief that 'not that a big deal' is grammatically correct.

 

So, which one is grammatically correct?

 

.   1. It's not that a big deal

.   2. It's not that big a deal

And why does the indeterminate article, ‘a’, come after the adjective big and not before in the Friends' excerpt?

asked Oct 4, 2016 at 14:01 user42700

 

 

<Reply>

What she says is "It's not that big a deal."

– StoneyB on hiatus Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 14:52

 

@StoneyB, Yeah. And that is grammatically incorrect. This is what I think.

– user42700 Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 14:56

 

No, that's a common idiom. "(How big is it?) It's not that big*" = "It's not so big as that".

– StoneyB on hiatus Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 15:01

 

@StoneyB Note that the USAianism is "It's not as big as that", for some reason.

– P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Commented Oct 4, 2016 at 21:53

 

Even if #2 is grammatically incorrect, that's the correct idiomatic phrase. #1 just sounds SO WRONG...

– miltonaut Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 12:27

 

I would guess where some of the confusion arises is that "that" in this case is an adverb meaning "to a given degree" and thus modifies an adjective

– eques Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 16:30

 

"A big deal" is a good phrase. In a question, you could say "Is that a big deal?" You would be comparing "that" to "a big deal". In #1, you make a statement where "it" becomes the subject, taking the place of "that" in the sentence. Now you have "it", "that", and "a big deal" that you're trying to use to make a comparison. You can compare any two things. So what would you see as the role of each? In #2, there is an implied "of", "of a deal", and "that" is used to emphasize "big" rather than representing something.

– fixer1234 Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 5:17

 

 

 

[1 Answer]

"It's not that big a deal" is correct in speech and informal writing. "It's not that a big deal" is not correct.

The structure of the sentence is not common, but it can be used with other adjectives. For instance, I think "He's not that fast a runner" sounds reasonable.

answered Oct 5, 2016 at 15:11 Mark Foskey

 

 

<Reply>

Could you please provide me with some source material to get into the the intricacies of it?

– user42700 Commented Oct 5, 2016 at 15:13

 

*첨부: 

word order - ＂that a big deal＂ or ＂that big a deal＂？.docx

0.15MB

 

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