She's very much a hands-on manager.

[fenglish]

Hi,

I found this sentence from the Cambridge dictionary.

She's very much a hands-on manager.

Is it same as "She is a very much hands-on manager"?

Thanks.

 

[tedmc]

No, it is like changing an adverb to an adjective.

I found something in (not from).
Is it the same...

 

[emsr2d2]

Would it mean the same [STRIKE]as[/STRIKE] if I said "She is a very much hands-on manager"?

Your sentence is not grammatical. You could say "She is a very hands-on manager".

 

[teechar]

Is it the same as "She is a very much hands-on manager"?

No. As pointed out above by emsr2d2, that sentence is ungrammatical. The reason is that "very much" is an adverbial that cannot modify an adjective. It can only modify a verb.
Thus:
She is very much a hands-on manager. [Here, "very much" is modifying the verb "is", so the sentence works]
She is a very much hands-on manager. [Here, "very much" is modifying the compound adjective "hands-on", but that is not possible, so the sentence doesn't work]

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Your sentence is not grammatical. You could say "She is a very hands-on manager".

Isn't it confusing that the article A is modifying the adverb 'very' when it is a determiner/adjective? And adjectives don't modify adverbs, do they?

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Isn't it confusing that the article A is modifying the adverb 'very' when it is a determiner/adjective? And adjectives don't modify adverbs, do they?

It needs that article.

- She's a manager.
- She's a hands-on manager.
- She's a very hands-on manager.

So why a rather than the? The a tells us that she's not the only hands-on manager. She's one of the type of manager who is very hands-on.

 

[Rollercoaster1]

It needs that article.

- She's a manager.
- She's a hands-on manager.
- She's a very hands-on manager.

So why a rather than the? The a tells us that she's not the only hands-on manager. She's one of the type of manager who is very hands-on.

My questions wasn't about why 'the' wasn't used instead of 'a', but it was why any of the 3 articles (a, an, the) are/can be used before an adverb.

 

[teechar]

but it was why any of the 3 articles (a, an, the) are/can be used before an adverb.

Don't look at it that way. If any articles are used, there is a noun (possibly as part of a noun phrase) that requires them.

a car
a big car
a very big car

the house
the nice house
the really nice house

an elephant
a large elephant
an extremely large elephant

 

[Tdol]

My questions wasn't about why 'the' wasn't used instead of 'a', but it was why any of the 3 articles (a, an, the) are/can be used before an adverb.

Because there is a noun after the adverb/adjective combination. The appearance of an an adjective or an adverb modifying an adjective does not displace the grammatical point of the noun.

A woman :tick:
A good woman :tick:
A very good woman :tick:
A truly wonderful, terribly good woman :tick:

 

[Rollercoaster1]

Because there is a noun after the adverb/adjective combination. The appearance of an an adjective or an adverb modifying an adjective does not displace the grammatical point of the noun.

A woman :tick:
A good woman :tick:
A very good woman :tick:
A truly wonderful, terribly good woman :tick:

'..., terribly good woman' is pretty ugly to absorb for me. Pun intended.