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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

[adjective] of a [noun]?

Whenever I see a phrase like this:

  • "Is it too nice of a day to stay inside?"
It sounds really clunky and awkward. The sentence above is the headline of an article in a magazine I'm looking at right now. Is "nice of a day" poor grammar? I see this pattern ALL the time, and it sounds almost uneducated to me.
  

Top answer

I would say: It's too nice a day to stay inside/indoors. But: It's very nice of you to say that. CB

— Cool Breeze

  • I would say: It's too nice a day to stay inside/indoors.
  • But: It's very nice of you to say that.
  • CB
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4 Answers
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I would say: It's too nice a day to stay inside/indoors. But: It's very nice of you to say that.

CB
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Anonymousclunky and awkward
True. I would certainly not use that "of".

Is it too nice a day to stay inside?

Was that your point?

Are you seeing the pattern with other adjectives, or just with nice? This may reflect a tendency to borrow the "of" from expressions like "nice of you", because I don't think people w
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Maybe they wish to ask if it's nice that a day stays inside (and perhaps a bit too nice - who knows what it's doing inside).
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Nikola NovakMaybe they wish to ask if it's nice that a day stays inside (and perhaps a bit too nice - who knows what it's doing inside).
Very clever. (There's one in every crowd.)
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