some sort of "a" landmark

[Sweetpumpkin]

Hi,

Is there some sort of a landmark you can tell me about?

I've looked up dictionaries and there were many sentences including sort of. And most of them are like, sort of [without indefinite article] noun phrase. But I found out numerous results with 'sort of a' in byu corpus.

What do you think? Which is right? sort of a vs. just sort of.

Thanks,
sweetpumpkin

[Cerberus™]

"Sort of landmark" and "a sort of landmark" are correct.

"Sort of a landmark" is incorrect. However, it is often used this way colloquially (slang). That is why you found it in a corpus; but it is not proper English.

[Mister Micawber]

.
There is nothing 'incorrect' about inserting the indefinite article in some cases (though not yours, SP); it is merely spoken English-- in fact, the whole phrase, 'sort of (a)' is casual.

For example, the sentence. 'This is sort of a difficult discussion' would be rather odd without the article.
.
_________________
Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's

[Cerberus™]