nouns - "You're too clever a man"



You're too clever a man to imagine this.



The above sentence was said by George Galloway, a man of excellent rhetorical skills.


Since he said it, I doubt it's wrong, grammatically. But, I wonder if there is an explanation for this. Because adjectives always come after the article not before it. e.g. You're a clever man.


How could this be, grammatically?



Answer



It is surely grammatical. I'm still trying to find some definitive reference on the web. Meanwhile, you may want to read this thread.


This page is helpful, but again I don't think it's definitive.


To me, sentences like He is a too/so big man are never correct. We need to restructure the sentence as He is too/so big a man. Alternatively, you can safely say He is such a big man.


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