"as good a guys"

[Benjamin Barrett]

I sent this construction to a friend who responded: as good as any guys. BB

Laurence Horn wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      "as good a guys"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm not sure we've discussed precisely this faute-de-mieux
> construction, although it's related to phenomena we have touched on
> from time to time...
>
> "The guys I coached here were as good a guys as I've ever dealt with."
> --the reasonably articulate Jeff Van Gundy, recently dismissed coach
> of the Houston Rockets, about the players on his former team, in
> interview on WFAN a few minutes ago.
>
> I call it faute de mieux because there really isn't any better plural
> of "as good a guy", although I suppose most speakers would come up
> with "as good guys as..."   Seems like a good candidate for a
> Jerry-Cohenian blend, "(He was) as good a guy as..." + "(They were)
> good guys".
>

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