Most sources I checked (Chicago, Garner, AP Stylebook) recommend the guidelines I give in this article, but I found one dissenter: Also, Garner and the Merriam-Webster online dictionary note that the use of "awhile" as the object of a preposition ("Go play for awhile") is increasing. (Actually, when you use "a year" like that, it’s usually also at least somewhat general because it probably hasn’t been "Awhile" means "for a time,” and it's an adverb. Mignon Fogarty is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller "Copyright © 2020 Macmillan Holdings, LLC. It is still most often called an error, however, and Garner calls it a “stage 1” error in his ranking system, which means it is the least acceptable kind of error. Murder: Differences In Intent And Degree“WikiLeaks” vs. “Wikipedia”: Do You Know The Difference?“Net” vs. “Gross”: What Does This Difference Cost You?“Ketchup” And Other Words That Come From Mandarin Or Cantonese3 Ways To Sound Assertive (Instead Of Passive-Aggressive)What Does Virgo Mean? 1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and a then-record 16 weeks at No. To tell the difference, you can test your sentence with other nouns and adverbs. The official video for "It's Been Awhile" by Staind from their album 'Break The Cycle' - available now! The Quick and Dirty Tip is that "awhile" and "a while" both describe a vague length of time, but you use the one-word version when you need an adverb and the two-word version when you need a noun. Both of these terms are expressions of time, but one is written with a space while the other is one word. As an Amazon Associate and a Bookshop.org Affiliate, QDT earns from qualifying purchases.

The song spent a second-best 20 weeks at No. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace "a while" with another article-noun combination such as "a year":Both of those sentences describe a length of time: "a while" is more general and "a year" is more specific, but they’re both a length of time. The article "a" before "while" is a sure sign that you're dealing with a noun. Mignon Fogarty The song is Staind's most successful and is their best-known song, becoming a No. For these reasons, I prefer 'awhile.' "It's been a while since I sat at a dinner table together with a family." "A while" is a noun phrase and means “a period of time.” In contrast, "awhile" is an adverb, and it means “for a time.” This may seem confusing, so keep reading for several helpful examples and tricks. 'Awhile' is the adverb and should never follow a preposition. Quick & Dirty Tips™ and related trademarks appearing on this website are the property of Mignon Fogarty, Inc. and Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Finally, just to make it confusing, if you rephrase "Go play awhile" and replace the adverb with a prepositional phrase, you need the noun again because an adverb can't be the object of the preposition. "Awhile" means "for a time,” and it's an adverb. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace "awhile" with another adverb such as "quietly": Go play awhile. Few word pairs capture the idiosyncrasies (“peculiar characteristics”) of the English language like a while and awhile do. The two-word expression This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.Cyclone vs. Typhoon vs. Hurricane: Are They All The Same?Manslaughter vs.

It was released in March 2001 as the lead single from their album Break the Cycle. "A while" describes a time, a noun. "It's Been Awhile" is a song recorded by American rock band Staind. 1 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, be What is the difference between a while and awhile? If you can replace "awhile" with another adverb such as "quietly," "longer," or "briefly," you know you want the one-word version. To my ear, 'since I … Second is the verb tense in the subordinate clause. (Actually, when you use "a year" like that, it’s usually also at least somewhat general because it probably hasn’t been exactly a year since Squiggly tried marmite.) In fact, these two terms represent different parts of speech.

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