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I saw a video where this British person says "Nice pub this" and I'm wondering if that's actually a shorter way of saying "[A] nice pub this [is]."

Is this construction common in everyday British English? Does this form exist in American English at all?

Bill Heap
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    It's an expression I've been familiar with for many years. 'Nice pub, this' / 'Nice shirt, that' / 'Nice day, today'. Conversational deletion is in play, perhaps from 'It's a nice pub, this is' (hence the usual comma), though 'This is a nice pub' is the more usual expanded form. I'd say it's more common in the north of England, and perhaps becoming generally less commonly heard. I can't find data on Google Ngrams. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 01 '21 at 13:03
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    Without any evidence to back me up, I'd say the construction is more common in British English but not out of the ordinary in American English. – Andy Bonner Nov 01 '21 at 13:28
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    Right dislocation from This is a nice pub, followed by conversational deletion of it's. – John Lawler Nov 01 '21 at 15:19
  • "A fine romance with no kisses / A fine romance, my friend, this is" (Jerome Kern with lyrics by Dorothy Fields) – DjinTonic Nov 01 '21 at 18:33

1 Answers1

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Odd question, this. I suppose to non-native Englishspeakers this may seem a bit "Yodish" (https://grammarpartyblog.com/2011/05/04/speaking-yodish/)...

But native speakers do tend to express themselves in similarly flexible ways.

user46359
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