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English "this" as indefinite article | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| tennisfan Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5361 days ago 130 posts - 247 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 7 12 August 2012 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have you ever heard the word "this" used in the following ways?---
"There's this movie that I think you would really love..." "There's this dress that I've been wanting to buy for a long time..." "There's this girl that I really like..." "I've got this problem that I just don't know how to solve..." and so on. I've noticed that I (native American English speaker) use "this" like that sometimes, and it's pretty commonplace among friends and other people I know. I was thinking about it and it seems actually that "this" is used not as a demonstrative pronoun but almost like an indefinite article. You could easily replace it with "there's a movie that I think you would really love" and to my ears it means exactly the same thing. Is this strictly an American expression or do other people use it around the world as well? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 2 of 7 12 August 2012 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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In German, there's the same phenomenon. "This" in this case means something like "a certain". It indicates that you are thinking about a special girl/movie/whatever.
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| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 3 of 7 12 August 2012 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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This usage exists in UK English too. Interesting phenomenon! Edited by Random review on 12 August 2012 at 11:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5566 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 7 12 August 2012 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is used by native speakers of London English all the time, to the point that I don't
find it unnatural sounding in the least - as in 'I saw this bird in the battle cruiser the other day and she was right billy piper. I reckon she'd been snortin' the old Boutrous Boutrous Galli, me self' - :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5784 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German | Message 5 of 7 13 August 2012 at 12:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I think I can work out battle cruiser (=boozer, right?), but what are "Billy Piper" and
"Boutros Boutros Ghali"? Edited by Random review on 13 August 2012 at 12:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5566 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 7 13 August 2012 at 12:46am | IP Logged | ||
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Billy Piper = hyper
Boutros Boutros Ghali = charlie = cocaine I have a work colleague from Bermondsey who uses such words on a regular basis, which is how I (who comes from up market Blackheath and thus speaks nothing but the Queen's English) know about the canting language of the East Enders. Edited by Elexi on 13 August 2012 at 1:05am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| IronFist Senior Member United States Joined 6438 days ago 663 posts - 941 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Korean | Message 7 of 7 13 August 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
That's how it's used in English, too: "there's this girl that I like..." (a specific girl) "There's this movie that you should see." (A specific movie) "There's this thing that keeps happening with my computer" (a specific thing) I don't think it's an indefinite article because it's referring to a specific thing. Also note that the word "that" is optional in the first two examples: "There's this girl that I like..." = "there's this girl I like..." "There's this movie that you should see" = "there's this movie you should see." But not in the third example. If you remove the "that" it sounds funny: "There's this thing keeps happening with my computer" = sounds wrong. Edited by IronFist on 13 August 2012 at 4:53pm 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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