It's Been Awhile

"Awhile" means "for a time,” and it's an adverb. "A while" describes a time, a noun. The song is Staind's most successful and is their best-known song, becoming a No.

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"It's been a while since I sat at a dinner table together with a family." 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 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. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace "awhile" with another adverb such as "quietly": The song spent a second-best 20 weeks at No. 'Awhile' is the adverb and should never follow a preposition.


Both of these terms are expressions of time, but one is written with a space while the other is one word. To tell the difference, you can test your sentence with other nouns and adverbs.

Few word pairs capture the idiosyncrasies (“peculiar characteristics”) of the English language like a while and awhile do. Notice in the following sentence that you could replace "awhile" with another adverb such as "quietly": Go play awhile. Mignon Fogarty

For these reasons, I prefer 'awhile.' If you can replace "awhile" with another adverb such as "quietly," "longer," or "briefly," you know you want the one-word version. 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. Quick & Dirty Tips™ and related trademarks appearing on this website are the property of Mignon Fogarty, Inc. and Macmillan Holdings, LLC.

5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2001, their only song to reach the top 10. 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.

(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. "It's Been Awhile" is a song recorded by American rock band Staind.

1 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and a then-record 16 weeks at No. It was released in March 2001 as the lead single from their album Break the Cycle. As an Amazon Associate and a Bookshop.org Affiliate, QDT earns from qualifying purchases. "A while" and "awhile" have different meanings. 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. 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. 1 on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, be 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. NOTE: As is so often the case, English usage isn’t simple.

"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. If you can replace "a while" with another article and noun such as "an hour" or "a year," you know you want the two-word version. The article "a" before "while" is a sure sign that you're dealing with a noun. (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.)

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? The first question is whether 'a while' or 'awhile' is correct. In fact, these two terms represent different parts of speech. Second is the verb tense in the subordinate clause.

What is the difference between a while and awhile? To my ear, 'since I … The official video for "It's Been Awhile" by Staind from their album 'Break The Cycle' - available now!

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