Now those / now, those
Hi!
There is this construction I came across in the past that I would love to learn more about but have no idea how to look for it. I tried different corpora and some fancy Google searches with quotation marks, but to no avail. It goes like this:
People are usually scared of spiders, but I never was. On the other hand, the harmless moths that some people find cute – now those make me scream in fear.
I'm not sure if there was a comma between 'now' and 'those', but I'm positive that it was used this way.
Please note that this does not refer to change over time, but rather emphasizes the new subject.
I'll be very grateful for an explanation of the construction and perhaps some examples of it being used. Is the comma there or not? Is it formal or should I abstain from using it in formal writing?
Top answer
IncestStick an explanation of the construction It's not a grammatical construction. It's simply one of the idiomatic uses of the word 'now'. Here the use of 'now' emphasizes a radical contrast with what precedes.
- IncestStick an explanation of the construction It's not a grammatical construction.
- It's simply one of the idiomatic uses of the word 'now'.
- Here the use of 'now' emphasizes a radical contrast with what precedes.
- CJ
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IncestStick an explanation of the construction
It's not a grammatical construction. It's simply one of the idiomatic uses of the word 'now'. Here the use of 'now' emphasizes a radical contrast with what precedes.
CJ
0The comma is mandatory to differentiate between the plain adverb "now" and the introductory adverb "now". It is the difference between "Now I don't know", meaning "at this point in time I don't know", and "Now, I don't know", meaning "mark my words, I don't know". Yours is introductory: "now, those make me scream …."
I would call the introductory "now" conversational. I would not expect
0
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