English Language & Usage Asked on February 9, 2021
I’ve found both versions, She lives in such-and-such a street AND She lives in such-and-such street
Are both uses of the determiner? Which is the right one?
This is interesting, and there does seem to be divided usage. Google ngrams for such and such a street and such and such street (and a check on references given at the link) show that both are used (with various choices of hyphenation), the one containing the article 'a' being five times as common a choice.
This is probably because there is an attempt to conform to standard grammar, though logically 'such and such a' is no better than 'such and such' as a placeholder some would portray as _____ or XXXX.
Collins Cobuild does not analyse such and such more than to call the whole a phrase; when used before a noun, the near-equivalence of 'some' might make some argue for determiner classification. And Collins does not even comment on the fact that a is typically included before a noun. As seen below, the distribution of 'such and such [a]' is fairly wide, not merely prenominal:
such and such [phrase]:
You use such and such to refer to a thing or person when you do not want to be exact or precise. [spoken, vagueness]
- I said, 'Well what time'll I get to Leeds?' and he said such and such a time but I missed my connection.
- He'd like to give a course of lectures on such and such a topic.
- we went to such and such a place [from Webster's]
- Or that the friend you trusted was going to betray you in some way on such and such a date? [Anthony Masters: Cascades - The Day of the Dead]
- And so we produce masses of documented research to define a target audience in such and such a demographic. [Stuart Harrison: Better than This]
The last example is more unusual, as 'such and such [a]' is, as Collins adds, usually used in informal contexts.
[re-ordered]
Collins includes examples where 'such and such' is not used before a noun, and the 'a' is inappropriate:
- What if such and such had happened instead? [used ostensibly as a noun phrase]
- Father, forgive me for I have sinned, she said, my last confession was such and such ago. [Louise Erdrich: The Last Report on ...] [used ostensibly as a measure phrase]
Answered by Edwin Ashworth on February 9, 2021
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