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Jackson6612 Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

that fool of a husband

0 01sup00102sup00of02br
01b008 a02b00—used as a function word to indicate a particular example belonging to the class denoted by the preceding noun 00<the city 01i00of02i00 Rome>00 01b00b02b00—used as a function word to indicate apposition 00<01u00that fool 01i00of02i00 a husband02u00>02br
00[M-W's Col. Dic.]02br
02br
00I couldn't see any apposition in 01i00that fool of a husband02i00. Are 01i00that02i00 and 01i00fool02i00 in apposite relation to each other?02br
02br
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Top answer

1i 00The fool02i 00 and 01i 00the husband02i 00 are in apposition. You could equally say:02br 01i 00That fool committed a murder. 02br 02i 02br 01i 00The husband commited a crime.

— Marius Hancu

  • 1i 00The fool02i 00 and 01i 00the husband02i 00 are in apposition.
  • You could equally say:02br 01i 00That fool committed a murder.
  • 02br 02i 02br 01i 00The husband commited a crime.
  • 02i 0-
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13 Answers
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1i00The fool02i00 and 01i00the husband02i00 are in apposition. You could equally say:02br
01i00That fool committed a murder. 02br
02i02br
01i00The husband commited a crime. 02i0-
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0 Hi Jackson02br
00No, 01i00that02i00 isn't a noun. 01i00Fool02i00 and 01i00husband02i00 are nouns and thus 01i00husband02i00 01i00is "a particular example" of a fool - 02i00to use the wording of your dictionary.05000 Learning things like this is of little avail
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0 Now I could not understand the meaning of 01i00fool of a husband02i00. Please help me. 0-
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0 he's a fool husband, he's a husband who is also a fool0-
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0 What does 01i00of02i00 stand for in that expression? 0-
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0belonging02br
00 he's a fool 01b00which belongs to the set/crowd of02b00 husbands02br
00he's a fool 01b00which belongs in the husbands' 02b00set/crowd0-
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0 Hi,02br
00it's just an idiom used to say "that husband who is a fool". But I think there's something interesting about this idiom, which I am not sure about. 02br
02br
01b001) Additional particles go before the first noun:02b02br
01i00I saw your idiot of a sister. I saw that idiot of a sister of yours.02br
02i0
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0 The dictionary definition is simply calling attention to a certain grammatical construction in which you can say that Y is an X (01i00The husband is a fool02i00.) as a subordinate thought within a bigger sentence by using the structure 01i00X of a Y02i00. (01i00that fool of a husband02i00). X and Y are the terms in appositi
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0CJ, that was a **** of an explanation ))))))02br
00couldn't help myself )))0-
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Lone Swordsman12cite10a **** of an explanation12blockquote
15000 010id5
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