Watch your phraseology

[Thadeus]

I just came across someone using the phrase:
Once and awhile

So I started Googling to see how far this phenomenon extends:

"Once and awhile" - 38,000 hits
"Once and a while" - 127,000 hits
"Once in a while" - 2,890,000 hits
"Once in awhile" - 859,000 hits

The logic certainly dictates that it is not "and".

But of the variations of "a while" and "awhile" Merriam-Webster claims "awhile" a misuse (much like "alot", however Merriam won't even acknowledge "alot").

Now that I've seen it as both "awhile" and "a while" I cannot discern which it is that I would have used if I were to have written this beofre looking it up.

~Thadeus

 

[Dimandja]

awhile" is an adverb: let's wait awhile.

"Once in a while" should be the correct phrase.

 

[stormbind]

I am no expert, but awhile looks distinctly wrong.

--Glen

Memoria mihi benigna erit qui eam perscribam

 

[SantaMufasa]

Here are some of my favourite misstatements and malapropisms:

"fire distinguisher"
"pigment of my imagination:
"expresso"
"prolly"
"insinuendo"
"The cardinals elected the Pope in the Sixteenth Chapel"
"Caesar Salad must have plenty of neutrons on top."
"His misbehaviour is so flustrating."
"I gotta aks you a question."
"Using steroids made him illegible to play."
"I no longer have much affluence over my adult children's behaviour."
"I was very disallusioned by his behaviour."
"She put the flower derrangement on the table."
"You are labouring under many disdeceptions."
"She thinks she's psychic because she has extra-century perception."
" Don't is a contraption."
"Call 911...he's having a cardial arrest."
"Paris Hilton has really plummeted to the top."
"He pulled a miracle out of the fire."
"He is a man of great statue."
"Bondage between and mother and child is important."
"The last episode of the season was a real cliff-dweller."
"He unleased a real hornets' nest."
"Make sure you save energy by having plenty of installation in your attic."
"He must of arrived already"
"He's always late...He needs better punctuation"
"there were multiple incidences"
"The soldiers discovered live ordinance."
"time in again"
"rather or not"
"one in the same"
"She suffers from absessive-compulsive disorder."
"The defendant was released on his own reconnaissance."


Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[Stella740pl]

Now that I've seen it as both "awhile" and "a while" I cannot discern which it is that I would have used if I were to have written this beofre looking it up.

I can say for sure that both before and after you looked it up, I would have definitely used "a while", not "awhile".

 

[SkipVought]

Mufasa,

Sounds like Norm Crosby-isms.

Skip,

_{[red]Be advised:[/red]When Viscounts were guillotined just as they were disclosing where their jewels were hidden, it shows to go that you should...
Never hatchet your Counts before they chicken!}

 

[jebenson]

I've see this one in print...I've even seen it in the major daily newspaper here in Austin:

"He's got a difficult road to hoe."

Ad this one is not really a phraseology error, but it curled my toes it was so cute. My 5-year-old son was helping his mom in the garden, and he came in the house to get something, tracking mud across the floor. I said, "Hey, buddy, you're getting mud all over the floor." He looked at his feet, looked at me and replied (in a slightly exasperated voice), "Its not mud, daddy, its just wet dirt."

I used to rock and roll every night and party every day. Then it was every other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find 30 minutes a week in which to get funky. - Homer Simpson