What is the meaning of "this" in the following sentence?
Something this important required complete privacy.
Is the sentence with "this" a grammatically correct sentence structure?
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2 Answers
In your sentence, this is used in an adverbal sense meaning to a particular degree. There are several other ways of expressing the same meaning:
She had never eaten this much before
She had never eaten as much as this before
She had never eaten as much before
She had never eaten so much before
Note that this in the the first example sentence is an adverb, but in the second example sentence it is a pronoun (actually a demonstrative pronoun).
You will find both the pronoun and adverb definitions of this in the Cambridge Dictionary.
answered Jan 24, 2018 at 2:08
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does "Something this important required complete privacy." mean " Something as important required completed privacy" ? then, is "this or as" in the sentences adverbs ? Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 2:36
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Does "Something this important required complete privacy." mean "Something important like this required completed privacy"? Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 2:46
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1Yes, this, as and so are all functioning as adverbs of degree. No, you can't replace this by like this*. Adverbthis is about degree - how important something is. like is about similarity, for example, similarity of style: "I want to buy another pair of shoes like this." Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 5:17
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If so, then, is "this" in the sentence, "She had never eaten as much as this before" adverb not noun? Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 7:08
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In "this much", this qualifies the determiner (a kind of adjective) much, so it is an adverb. In the expression "as adjective as noun", it takes the place of a noun: it's actually a demonstrative pronoun. dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/… Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 10:02
Something this important required complete privacy.
means
Anything as important as this thing we are talking about required complete privacy.
which really means
This thing we are talking about required complete privacy because it was so important.
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Does "Something this important required complete privacy." mean "Something required completed privacy because something was so important like this". then, does "this important " in the sentence mean "because something was so important like this" ? Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 2:40
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Does "Something this important required complete privacy." mean "Something important like this required completed privacy"? Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 2:46
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1The word "this" in your two sentences are completely difference. Re-read JavaLatte's answer. In the original sentence, "this" means "to a particular degree". "This important" means "as important as this". Commented Jan 24, 2018 at 2:47