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OK, so I was reading this article the other day and in it this guy talked about this problem he had with language. Well that's what my daughter would say.
I try not to be a grammar nazi but use of "this"as the indefinite article seems a loss. "A" works perfectly well, this is useful for differentiating from "that".
Is this just me being overly sensitive or is some concern about preservation of language precision valid?
In your sample sentence, "...I was reading this article the other day and in it this guy talked about this problem he had with language," it would certainly be traditional to use "a" and "an" instead of "this". However, I am not convinced that the use of "this" in your sample sentence is as an indefinite article since the sentence does refer to a particular article/guy/problem (albeit one that is unfamiliar to the person being spoken to), rather than an article/guy/problem in general.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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