Like most English teachers, I spend countless hours reading student papers and making grammatical edits. I do it so much that my brain seems to see in auto-pilot those odd sentence constructions or misplaced punctuation marks and automatically guide my red pen-grasping hand toward the page without much of a thought. But every so often, something will pop up that makes me do a double take.
A student recently wrote the word "awhile" on a paper, and I startled at the odd little word and tried to remember the last time I had seen it in print. I commonly write "a while" as two words, so this form made me reconsider the distinction between these two uses.
"A while" as two words can be replaced in a sentence by a unit of time since it's a noun phrase. For example: "It has been a while since I used that word." I could just as easily say, "It has been five years since I used that word." Therefore, the phrase "a while" is correct.
"Awhile" as one word is an adverb used for description and literally meaning "for a period of time." For example: "She went to the park to play awhile." Awhile is describing the verb "play." Since we could substitute, "She went to the park to play for a period of time," this sentence is correct. I can't say, "It has been for a period of time since I used that word."
I think this is tricky because when we speak, we don't notice the distinction. But perhaps this tip will help you when putting these options into print.
It's not often that I have to investigate a grammar rule, but it's a good reminder that even your teachers can be, if not completely stumped, at least mildly confused by English grammar just as everyone else is from time to time.
A student recently wrote the word "awhile" on a paper, and I startled at the odd little word and tried to remember the last time I had seen it in print. I commonly write "a while" as two words, so this form made me reconsider the distinction between these two uses.
"A while" as two words can be replaced in a sentence by a unit of time since it's a noun phrase. For example: "It has been a while since I used that word." I could just as easily say, "It has been five years since I used that word." Therefore, the phrase "a while" is correct.
"Awhile" as one word is an adverb used for description and literally meaning "for a period of time." For example: "She went to the park to play awhile." Awhile is describing the verb "play." Since we could substitute, "She went to the park to play for a period of time," this sentence is correct. I can't say, "It has been for a period of time since I used that word."
I think this is tricky because when we speak, we don't notice the distinction. But perhaps this tip will help you when putting these options into print.
It's not often that I have to investigate a grammar rule, but it's a good reminder that even your teachers can be, if not completely stumped, at least mildly confused by English grammar just as everyone else is from time to time.