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I stumbled upon the phrase すごいその, while watching the tv programme. At first, I thought it means "That's amazing" because

すごい = Amazing

その = That

However, I was told by my Japanese friend that it means "Let me see" or the speakers was stammering and thinking about what to say next in this context.

I couldn't really check this on any websites, so can someone explain this to me?

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  • How confident are you that the words you heard are exactly those? For example when you say "You were told it means let me see" do you mean that you had a native Japanese speaker next to you telling you that? In such case at least we'd know 100% that that's what you heard.
    – Tommy
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 7:52
  • I think this is the right forum for questions like this. I certainly learnt something useful from the answer to your question.
    – user3856370
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 14:36
  • The last part is really unrelated.
    – user4032
    Commented Jul 16, 2017 at 3:44

1 Answer 1

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その all by itself can work as a filler similar to "well" or "er".

すごい is an adjective meaning "amazing", but it also works as an intensifying adverb similar to "really", "fairly", "quite", "pretty", etc. Although not technically a filler, sometimes it may be used like a filler, too, because this type of すごい means almost nothing without the following adjective.

So it is possible that すごいその is just two words, "very, er...", "quite, um...", "really, well...", or such, said as a filler in a sentence. But we need more context to determine what this really means.

Example:

この絵は……すごい…その…個性的だね。
This picture is......very....um..."unique."

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  • I think what you have explained is very possible. It is just how the speakers said and the explanation from my friend that led me to misunderstand that すごいその is some kind of phrase/slang. Nevertheless, this is the original clip. youtu.be/akjvOPix8Xg?t=4m43s
    – Maru
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 8:50
  • Ah yes, this すごいその a filler meaning almost nothing :) Obviously he did not know what to say after すごい when he said it.
    – naruto
    Commented Apr 21, 2017 at 9:02

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