Source From an episode of Friends at 00:01
Monica: Will you let it go? It's not that big a deal.
Ross: Not that big a deal? It's amazing! OK. Just reach in there and there's just one little manoeuvre bam! — a bra right out the sleeve.
I always believed ‘that a big deal’ to be correct until I watched this episode of 'Friends' series where It's not that big a deal was used so frequently, I am now beginning to doubt my belief that not that a big deal is grammatically correct.
So, which one is grammatically correct?
- it's not that a big deal
- it's not that big a deal
And why does the indeterminate article, ‘a’, come after the adjective big and not before in the Friends' excerpt?
Best Answer
"It's not that big a deal" is correct in speech and informal writing. "It's not that a big deal" is not correct.
The structure of the sentence is not common, but it can be used with other adjectives. For instance, I think "He's not that fast a runner" sounds reasonable.