An at times
"Jean-Claude Juncker has declared that the “wind is back in Europe’s sails” in an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech in which he gave his vision for the future of the bloc when the UK makes its “tragic” departure in 2019." (The Guardian.)
Is there any grammatical reason to use the determiner "an" before the prepositional phrase "at times..." in the sentence above? Is it that the phrase "an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech" is a noun one and "at times" adverbially modifies "deeply personal State of the Union speech"?
Top answer
anonymous Is it that the phrase "an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech" is a noun one and "at times" adverbially modifies "deeply personal State of the Union speech"? e. at times, or in some places, the speech was deeply personal.
- anonymous Is it that the phrase "an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech" is a noun one and "at times" adverbially modifies "deeply personal State of the Union speech"?
- e.
- at times, or in some places, the speech was deeply personal.
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anonymous Is it that the phrase "an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech" is a noun one and "at times" adverbially modifies "deeply personal State of the Union speech"?
Yes, pretty much, but more exactly, "at times" modifies "deeply personal", i.e. at times, or in some places, the speech was deeply personal.
0anonymous Is it thatthe phrase"an at times deeply personal State of the Union speech" is a noun phraseoneand "at times" adverbially modifies "deeply personal State of the Union speech"?
That's right.
The head noun here is "speech". Since it's a singular countable noun, it requires a determine, and that determiner must
0
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