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Anonymous Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

a vs some

normally the indefinite article goes with countable nouns,
while 'some' with uncountable nouns.
But sometimes I see 'some' is used with countable nouns.
A: Who saved you?
B: Some guy in a mark.

There's was some bloke who was getting my back up.

And of course there'll be a lot of examples like that.
I tried to get help from dictionaries, Google and a few grammars,
but I've not found out about it yet.
  

Top answer

Some guy in this case means "a person whom I do not know".

  • Some guy in this case means "a person whom I do not know".
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6 Answers
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Some guy in this case means "a person whom I do not know".
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Yes I think so, but doesn't the indefinite article make that impression, too?
I thought there would be some difference.
If were not, 'a' and 'some' would be the same sometimes.
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"Some" is more casual. You will hear these in informal situations. They have different nuances.

A guy in a Ford pickup. ("Normal" English.)
Some guy in a Ford pickup. (You didn't know him, and still don't know who he is, even after he helped you.)
This guy in a Ford pickup. (The guy was nice or special for helping you. You might have found out something about him, like his na
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Anonymoussometimes I see 'some' is used with countable nouns.
a is neutral and is used in both formal and informal contexts.
some shows speaker attitude and is almost always used only in informal contexts.
The attitude can be positive or negative.

Wow! That was some show they put on! (The speaker shows his admiratio
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Right, then you say we can use `some`
in an informal way and it has two meanings
- positive or negative - depending on context.
Did I understand it well enough?
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Yes - the tone of voice as well as the context determines if the person means something great or something horrid (sarcastic) or neutral.

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