You know when you meet someone who is very passionate and knowledgeable about a subject and you think you’re following along okay, and then suddenly it’s like you’re in the deep end and you don’t know what just happened? Maybe you’ve never experienced this, but imagine that you have. That is what it’s like to talk about whether to use a while or awhile. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that when you decide to learn a skill, you realize how little you actually know. Learning grammar is a life-long adventure. So I’m happy to share this little nugget with you.
Awhile or a while. Does it even matter? Basically both describe a vague length of time. So which is correct? And when? Let’s look at some sentences to help us out.
- It’s taken us a while/awhile to get here.
- We haven’t seen her in a while/awhile.
- It’s been a while/awhile since I’ve seen live music.
- Dinner will be a while/awhile.
- Go stand over there a while/awhile.
One word: Literally means for a while. Awhile, one word, is an adverb. (A reminder that adverbs modify how, when, or where [mostly]. Adverbs also modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs.) Awhile is for a period or length of time. One way to check if awhile is the right choice in the sentence is to replace awhile with another adverb, like “eventually,” “already,” “since,” “quickly,” “after,” or “briefly.”
- It’s taken us eventually to get here. Nope. Needs a while.
- We haven’t see her in briefly. Nope, doesn’t work. We haven’t seen her in a while.
- Dinner will be after. Yes, that would work. Dinner will be awhile.
- It’s been later since I’ve seen live music. Nope, that doesn’t work.
- Go stand over there quickly. Yep. That works, so use awhile (Go stand over there awhile).
Two Words: A while is noun phrase (article and noun). A while is often (and I think supposed to) be used when following a preposition (example, once in a while). As with awhile, a while is a period of time (not for a period of time). A trick to remembering this is that 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.
- It’s taken us a year to get here. Yes, that works. So use two words. (It’s taken us a while to get here.)
- We haven’t seen her in a week. Yes, that works as well. Use a while.
- It’s been a month since I’ve seen live music. Again, this works, so use a while.
These rules can be a lot of remember, even with the helpful tricks. So when in doubt, the default is a while. Happy writing!
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash