Hey, thank you for the replies, but I'm afraid that it hasn't helped me. If anything, it's actually made me more confused than before I wrote the post.
First off, let me make the context clear - I know the person I mean to write to well. We're friends, pals, buddies. It's a single, isolated, standalone sentence, the first message I write to said person, possibly to initiate conversation, something I might expect a reply to.
G: "Guess what happened yesterday! I met (the/an) actor(,) Brad Pitt!"
F: "Wow! How was it?"
I'm not aiming for an official tone, perfectly proper English, or semantic accuracy; It's meant to be a casual message between two friends, something you'd hear said effortlessly, without any thoughts. I guess I'm looking for the most natural way of saying that, possibly something you'd write yourself if you were in this situation and need to write it.
Which, if any, would you use yourself?
A) "I met actor Brad Pitt."
B) "I met the actor Brad Pitt."
C) "I met the actor, Brad Pitt."
D) "I met an actor, Brad Pitt."
I'm flabbergasted that you've come up with different answers that contradict one another.
A is not possible. It's not equivalent to "President Trump (note the capital letter, which is required for a title) because "actor" isn't a title.
B and C are okay.
It makes sense, but it only furthers the question. What qualifiers as a
title?
Besides, I've heard/read the articleless version in the media, with words that I would not qualify as a
title.
I'm okay with A). It does sound like something you'd hear a reporter say, though.
If A has a medial feeling to it, I guess it's not what I'm aiming for.
I say A and B are fine. C and D are not. (That is, if I understand correctly what you're trying to do.)
Concerning A, it's quite commonplace to preface somebody's name with an apposite identifying phrase to make a single cohesive noun phrase. You don't need a definite article for this, for the same reason you don't need a definite article before the name.
actor Brad Pitt
folk hero William Tell
Using English member Glizdka
Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton
Nobel Prize-winning laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier
Also makes sense, and it's pretty much why I'd choose A myself, but now I'm afraid it might "sound like something you'd hear a reporter say," which isn't what I want. Does it sound like that, or it just
can sound like that?
The commas serve to separate the name Brad Pitt from the head of the noun phrase actor, and I don't think that's what you want to do. For that reason, C is not right.
I too feel the comma gives the meaning I don't intend my sentence to have. To me, the comma makes the "an/the actor" part sound more explanatory/clarificatory in nature, potentially to help distinguish between two people with the same name, to avoid ambiguity.
G: "I like what Murphy said about it."
F: "Eddie Murphy?"
G: "No, I like what the engineer, Edward A. Murphy Jr., said, not the actor, Eddie Murphy."
Especially in Tarheel's suggested sentence, it feels like that.
Also possible:
I met Brad Pitt, the actor.
(I am sure that some would consider meeting a celebrity an achievement.)
D is different still, in that you're using an indefinite noun phrase. That's not what you mean.
D) would be OK with an unknown actor.
I suppose it would be useful if I talked about a not-so-well-known person.
G: "I met John Smith."
F: "Who?"
G: "An actor. I met an actor, John Smith."
... now I'm writing a message to a friend to flexboast/brag about a new achievementexciting event in my life (meeting a knownfamous person).
See my corrections above.
"flex" doesn't mean "boast".
Meeting a famous person isn't an achievement.
I have no idea why you've corrected me, emsr2d2.
Don't get this wrong; I value your corrections, whenever you make them, but just this time, I'm not sure why you've made them, and I could use some explanation as to why you have.
My choice of words was conscious and deliberate. I wanted to hint that I do understand it's a silly thing to brag about, and to draw distinction between "me" in real life, and "me" in this hypothetical situation. It's only a hypothetical "me" we're discussing, not the actual "me", writing these words.
I opted for
flex, the informal alternative to
brag/
boast, to show how casual I mean myself to sound; I'm fairly certain
flex does mean
boast. I've seen/heard/used it many times. As for how come I've come across it living in Poland... erm... I just have? It's pretty common, actually.
The word
achievement was used sarcastically. I agree that meeting a famous person is not an
achievement, per se, and I don't feel like it's a reason to brag. Some people, however, seem to feel like it is significant enough to qualify as an
achievement, something to brag about, and the hypothetical "me" in this context does feel that way.
I thought
known could function as a weaker, underplayed version of
famous. I didn't want
famous or
a celebrity in my sentence because they're strong words that could imply I genuinely think it matters, enough to be a reason to brag at least. I opted for a weaker word to show I don't think it's significant. After all, a celebrity/famous person is just someone who's known by many people.
