[Ads-l] ADJ + of = a + ADJ

[Wilson Gray]

Clearly, this is not grammatical. What he ought to have said is,

"Does the European Union believe that Donald Trump is _all that reliable
of_ an ally?"

Anymore, this kind of egregious error aggravates* the hell out of me.

*During the War, the use of _aggravate_ "annoy" seriously knotted the
panties of school-teachers. I've heard it used a few times, recently. Maybe
the usage is zombie-ing back from the grave.

On Tue, Jul 17, 2018 at 8:00 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Reporter on _All Things Considered_ (from memory 20 mins. later):
>
> "Does the European Union believe Donald Trump is reliable of an ally?"
>
> (It might mean "reliable *as* an ally," but I suspect it's been extended
> from constructions like "as reliable of an ally as...")
>
> A slip of the tongue? Sure didn't sound like it.
>
> JL
>
>
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org