Why use an indefinite article in “It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees”? [duplicate]

I heard this sentence on the radio:

It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees.

Does the indefinite article in that sentence suggest “this certain type of day”?

Is it just a variation on “It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33-degree day”?

Solution 1:

“It’s 33 degrees” is a usual way you’d specify measurement, like saying “The temperature is 33 degrees”. In the former case, an expletive it is used in place of a subject, which is the only difference between the two cases. “33 degrees” is not an entity in its own right, just an expression of a specific type of quantity.

However. . . .

“It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees” is another situation. This sentence is structurally equivalent to “It’s a hot and uncomfortable summer”. The latter sentence implies there are various kinds of summers: nice ones, horrible ones, long ones, short ones, etc. — and that from all of those, we’re picking out one that happens to be hot and uncomfortable.

In your question, similarly, “33 degrees” is nominalised — made into an entity — just as if you wrote “33-degree day" or “33-degree situation”. The sentence presupposes that there are various sorts of “33 degrees”‑es (if that makes sense): muggy ones, sticky ones, breezy ones — all of them the same temperature, but feeling distinct from each other — and we're picking a particular “33 degrees” that happens to be hot and uncomfortable, exactly as in the “summer” example.

Solution 2:

Your question is not usually asked because a response like “it’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees” is a very common type of informal, colloquial response to a simple question. A formal response would not have the “hot and uncomfortable” in it.

Your question is difficult to answer, and I had to struggle, but here is my contribution.

“It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees” is the sort of informal response that gives more information than is asked for. People give more information because they want to add drama, color or excitement to a plain response. They also want to make the informal response more elegant or more fun by making it more colloquial. By leaving out the repeated question element (temperature) and using the indefinite article “a”, the response to the question becomes colloquial and more colorful.

Question: What is the temperature?

Plain response: It’s 33 degrees. [It is (a temperature of) 33 degrees.]

Plain response + color: It’s a hot and uncomfortable 33 degrees.

Question: How tall is he?

Plain response: He’s 200 cm. [he is (a height of) 200 cm.]

Plain response + color: He’s a massive and threatening 200 cm.

Question: What was the speed of that train?

Straight response: It went at 200 km/hour. [It went at (a speed of) 200 km/hour.]

Plain response + color: It went at a terrifying 200 km/hour.