Awhile versus A While - Commonly Confused Words

'Awhile' versus 'A While' - Commonly Confused Words Its easy to confuse the adverb awhile with the two-word noun phrase a while: the main difference between them is grammatical.The adverb awhile (one word) means for a short time: Stay awhile. The noun phrase a while (two words) refers to a period of time: I sat for a while and waited. Also, see the usage notes below. Examples Before removing the radiator cap, wait awhile for the engine to cool.I havent been to a football game in a long while. Usage Notes Awhile is an adverb, with the same meaning as the adverbial prepositional phrase for a while: Lets rest awhile; Lets rest for a while. When for a while cannot be substituted for awhile, awhile should be a while: spend a while with me. When for occurs, awhile should not follow; Stay for awhile should be Stay for a while or Stay awhile.(Edward Johnson, The Handbook of Good English. Washington Square Press, 1991)As a noun, spell it as two words:  a while. As an adverb, spell it as one:  awhile.(Bryan Garner, Garners Modern American Usage. Oxford University Press, 2009) Practice (a) Lifes short. If you dont look around once in _____ you might miss it.(Ferris Bueller in the movie  Ferris Buellers Day Off, 1986)(b) Merdine invited me to stay ____ longer, but it was getting late. Answers to Practice Exercises: Awhile and A While a) Lifes short. If you dont look around once in a while you might miss it. (Ferris Bueller)(b) Merdine invited me to stay awhile longer, but it was getting late.   Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words

Stock Report essays

Stock Report essays The original five stocks I started out with were Sirius (SIRI), Sun Microsystems (SUNW), Vitesse (VTSS), Nortel Networks (NT), and Nextel Communications (NXTL). I purchased 227 shares of SIRI at $2.86 each, 100 shares of SUNW at $5.50 each, 145 shares of VTSS at $8.61 each, 172 shares of NT at $7.53 and then another 82 shares at $7.62 each, and 44 shares of NXTL at $27.88 each. NXTL, SUNW, and VTSS immediately started taking a downward turn and I decided to sell only NXTL. On 3/7, I sold all my NXTL shares and used half the money to buy 56 shares of CHINA at $10.98 each and half the money to buy more NT. The next day, CHINA immediately dropped down sixty-three cents. All of my stocks except for SIRI and NT were down. On 4/19, I sold all my CHINA stocks and purchased 30 shares of NOK at $14.92 each. In a few days, NOK went up twenty-nine cents but soon dropped to $14.23. At this time, NT had dropped down almost two dollars. By 5/20, all my stocks were down except for SIRI. SIRI was up twenty-four cents. Overall, I had made a profit of $54.48 on SIRI alone. SUNW was down almost two dollars and I lost $166 on my SUNW shares. VTSS was down to almost half its original price and I lost $536.50. NT was down half of the price of which I had bought the second 82 shares for. On NT, I had lost $1076.72. NOK had gone down about a dollar and I lost $53.10 on my shares. Out of my starting $5000, I only had $3222.16 left. SIRI had no particular reason for going up. One reason SUNW went down is that its operating system, Solaris, was not doing well against its competitor, Linux. Also, Sun Microsystems has had a weak quarter and cannot hold share in the Unix computing market. SUNW stocks were also overvalued. Vitasses competitors had been performing better than it, causing its stocks to take a downturn. Its competitors had introduced more products while Vitasse had not, and the predictions for their quarterly revenue...