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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

...it has been a while...

I

t's been a while. Is that one word or two? I say, two because I'm using it as a noun and not as an adjective or adverb...I'll check.

When “awhile” is spelled as a single word, it is an adverb meaning “for a time” (“stay awhile”); but when “while” is the object of a prepositional phrase, like “Lend me your monkey wrench for a while” the “while” must be separated from the “a.” (But if the preposition “for” were lacking in this sentence, “awhile” could be used in this way: “Lend me your monkey wrench awhile.”)

I'm going with two words. It seems right to me.

Anyway, it's been a few months. Summer and the holidays are definitely over and while I might have been here just after Labour Day, I ran into some computer problems. That's for another time.

And there's lots to write about and that's for another time as well.

Posted 2009/10/07 at 09h28ET in JamesPiper.com.

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