English term
not so good (Noun) - where to put the article?
Not so good a man OR A not so good man,
where do I put the article here?
the phrase is to be used as a strory title
TIA
| 4 +3 | Not so good a man |
Joshua Wolfe
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| 4 +7 | Not such a good man |
Tony M
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| 4 | depends on sentence structure |
Maja Basara
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| 5 -3 | no article i suggest |
silifke63 (X)
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Aug 11, 2010 13:28: Sabine Akabayov, PhD changed "Level" from "PRO" to "Non-PRO"
Non-PRO (3): writeaway, Jim Tucker (X), Sabine Akabayov, PhD
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Responses
Trans-creative, impeccable translations
Native in: English
Works in: French to English, English
Not so good a man
If you decide the opposite way, however, and choose A Not-So-good Man as the title, please include hyphens.
| agree |
TrueBaller
: This is correct.
Hmm, what can I say, Joshua, I am a true baller (basketball baller that is...) Thanks!
45 mins
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Thanks, TrueBaller [interesting name, that]
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| agree |
Sarah Bessioud
: Works great as a title
50 mins
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Thank you for your support
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| agree |
British Diana
: idiomatic
4 hrs
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Thanks
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no article i suggest
it would be a right choce.
hth
| disagree |
Tony M
: I'm afraid TrueBaller is right, this is just not correct in EN, even allowing for poetic licence.
4 mins
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to be or not to be!!; art/literary! Thanks :)
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| neutral |
Lirka
: with Tony
15 mins
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| neutral |
Jim Tucker (X)
: alas, not English
30 mins
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| neutral |
Patricia Rosas
: ditto with the others!
55 mins
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| disagree |
TrueBaller
: Sorry, this is incorrect English
1 hr
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| disagree |
British Diana
: riddled with errors, I'm afraid
5 hrs
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Croatia
Accurate and dependable
Native in: Croatian
Works in: English to Croatian, Croatian to English, German to Croatian, and 7 more.
depends on sentence structure
What is your context?
A not so good man would have took advantage of the situation.
He not so good a man as you seem to think.
| neutral |
Tony M
: I agree with the principle of what you say, but sadly, the examples you suggest are flawed, and so do not illustrate proper EN usage.
5 mins
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| agree |
silifke63 (X)
: story title :) no sentence
6 mins
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| neutral |
Lirka
: the examples are very strange indeed, as if someone were joking about the way foreigners speaker (he not good). But you made my day.
11 mins
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| neutral |
Patricia Rosas
: agree again with lirka and Tony!
49 mins
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| disagree |
British Diana
: Both example sentences contain errors
5 hrs
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Not such a good man
'not so good a man...' could be followed, for example, by '...as one might be led to believe by his publicist'
'a not so good man' sounds a little awkward in EN, but is still possible, with a little stretching of the stylistic imagination.
My own suggestion probably sounds more natural, using 'such' (the more correct adverb form, I believe) — and could be used with ideas like 'not such a good man after all'
I think you probably need to reflect on just what connotation you might wish to put on this ... what is the unsaid remark that would follow (if any)?
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Note added at 22 mins (2010-08-11 13:05:35 GMT)
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None of the fragments you are considering are whole sentences in their own right, which is why the answer to your question depends entirely on the structure of the surrounding sentence — you cannot simply take this phrase in isolation.
It might help you to try adding the hyphens, to show where 'not so good' is functioning as an adjective:
"In the end, it was a not-so-cheap bargain"
"In the end, we found it was not so cheap a bargain as we'd at first hoped"
To use your own examples:
"Not so sexy a girl as the advert made out"
"A not-so-handsome guy can still take a pride in his appearance".
| agree |
Maria Fokin
7 mins
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| agree |
kmtext
8 mins
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| agree |
Lirka
9 mins
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| agree |
Sabine Akabayov, PhD
28 mins
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| agree |
Patricia Rosas
46 mins
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| agree |
TrueBaller
: This is correct, if you want to avoid using the "so"structure
1 hr
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| agree |
Rolf Keiser
3 hrs
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Discussion
He was not so good a man that he didn't sometimes forget to put the rubbish out / refuse to take the dog for a walk / turn a blind eye to injustice ...?
Not so sexy a girl.
A not so handsome guy.
etc.
I am interested in nominative phrases built after this particular pattern.