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I am reading a book (A Promised Land) and there is a sentence that I don't understand:

I still like writing things out in longhand, finding that a computer gives even my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss and lends half-baked thoughts the mask of tidiness.

The problem is this part: "my roughest drafts too smooth a gloss" because when I read it like this - my roughest drafts / too smooth / a gloss - I don't understand why there is an 'a' before 'gloss'. If 'smooth' is used as an adjective here, then why does the next part start with 'a gloss'?

psmears
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merrona
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    Welcome to ELU. A small number of adjective phrases can occur before the indefinite article. In your example, the degree modifier "too" introduces the AdjP "too smooth", where it functions as pre-head modifier in external position., before "a". It's equivalent to "a gloss that is too smooth". Other similar examples include "It was as fine a performance as I've ever seen" / "How serious a problem is it?" – BillJ Feb 01 '24 at 10:37
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    "a book" please edit your question and provide its title. – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '24 at 10:54
  • @Mari-LouA It is a very common construction ( "too {adjective} a {noun}") so we don't really need to know the title. – TimR Feb 01 '24 at 11:24
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    Is this too basic a question? – DjinTonic Feb 01 '24 at 11:28
  • @BillJ How about when there's a preposition thrown into the mix, "too smooth of a gloss"? – TimR Feb 01 '24 at 11:29
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    @Mari-LouA: The book title was actually in there, just invisible due to the peculiarities of Markdown. I've made it visible now... – psmears Feb 01 '24 at 11:44
  • @TimR How difficult is it to provide a title? Moreover, the book's author might not agree with you. EDIT Someone has provided the title. EDIT 2 The title was hidden because of <> those symbols. Well I never! – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '24 at 11:45
  • @Mari-LouA If it were a strange or unusual phrase that one needed further context to understand, we would expect a title (and a chapter or page reference). But this is a garden-variety construction. – TimR Feb 01 '24 at 11:52
  • @TimR it's not really about context, it's about attribution and citing sources. The OP had done the right thing but because of markdown the title was invisible. – Mari-Lou A Feb 01 '24 at 12:15

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