One World, One Word?

[woelfle]

Native speakers and grammar-savvy, what do you say?

I've been playing at freerice.com and having fun with the new, rather easy English grammar feature, and then this question came up:

Which is correct?
I was there for a while.
I was there for awhileAnd it wouldn't have anything but the second answer. On my first try, I didn't even notice it had

Comments

[kebab_meister]

I think both are correct. I always use awhile though. Many words are created by joining two together, such as 'always', 'albeit', and I can't think of others at the moment :D

The only Americanism's I hate is the inclusion of 'Z's everywhere. grrrr

[woelfle]

Hey, you're British! You're not supposed to say "awhile"! :-D

So, what's the meaning of "beit"? I'm definitely with you on the z's.

[kebab_meister]

Albeit = All be it :)

[woelfle]

Will you believe me that I never ever thought of that? Am stoooopid. :-D

I hope this comment will load at all...

[megu]

Awhile is a word, but there's a subtle difference between the two in my opinion. It's not like "alot", which is actually improperly spelled and annoying.

Okay after checking the dictionary: "awhile" is an adverb, therefore, cannot be preceded by a preposition, such as "for." So of the two sentences posted, the second one is incorrect.

A while, on the other hand, is a noun.

[_inbetween_]

I also thought the preposition "for" made the second sentence wrong - but obviously freerice begs to differ.

[woelfle]

Hah, they're wrroooong. Now I wonder if they did try to offer me two different capitals for that-country-whose-name-I've-forgotten too.

[woelfle]

Hm, maybe I'll have to accept its existence, but I still don't think it deserves the status of a word. :-D

But thanks for the adverb thing. Sounds rather plausible.

[supiluliumas]

I didn't know the precise grammatical rules before I read the comments. Now I know! To me, 'I was there awhile' just sounded more correct in my head.

[woelfle]

We could always say "I was there for a bit". Or would that be abit in American? :-p
I didn't know the rules either. But I sure have my subjective pet petty language nitpicking quibbles...

[supiluliumas]

"I was there for a bit" works just fine, in conversation! Honestly I don't know if the English use it, nor do I have a clue if it's correct grammar.