On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 12:24 PM, sven falempin <sven.falem...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 2:53 PM, Alexander Hall <alexan...@beard.se> wrote: > >> On 02/18/13 19:48, Nick Holland wrote: >> >>> On 02/17/13 04:54, Jason McIntyre wrote: >>> >>>> On Sun, Feb 17, 2013 at 01:29:00PM +0400, Nick Permyakov wrote: >>>> >>>>> Hi, >>>>> >>>>> I might be nitpicking, but the sentence "This will take awhile..." at >>>>> the bottom of >>>>> http://www.openbsd.org/stable.**html<http://www.openbsd.org/stable.html>doesn't >>>>> seem very >>>>> grammatical to me. I'd suggest fixing it to read "...take a while...". >>>>> >>>>> Best regards, >>>>> Nick Permyakov >>>>> >>>>> >>>> i thought it sounded strange too, so i looked it up. from collins >>>> cobuild: >>>> >>>> awhile: "Awhile" means for a short time. It is more commonly >>>> spelled `a while', which is considered more correct, especially >>>> in British English. >>>> >>>> so i don;t think there's anything wrong with it, as such. having said >>>> that, it's written in the context of a make build. i wonder whether the >>>> author really wanted to suggest a short time ;) >>>> >>>> jmc >>>> >>>> >>> "a while"/"awhile" means a short time? wow. I've always used it as >>> meaning "a long time". 'course, I usually say it with a sarcastic tone, >>> so maybe it's the sarcasm that gets the point across. >>> >>> I've changed it to "This will take some time. Depending on the speed of >>> the system, it may take less than an hour to a week or more." >>> >> >> Not that I'm a native English speaker, but I've never ever interpreted "a >> while" as a _short_ time specifically, but mostly as a fair but reasonable >> amount of time relative to the context. >> >> But then again, what's the definition of "short"? I guess that's depending >> on the context, too. >> >> /Alexander >> >> > i asked native english speaker, > apparently, taking awhile is always 'sarcastic', and never short.
Not according to dictionaries[1][2][4]. I've never thought "awhile" as a sarcastic usage. [1] http://thefreedictionary.com/awhile a·while (-hwl, -wl) adv. For a short time. Usage Note: Awhile, an adverb, is never preceded by a preposition such as for, but the two-word form a while may be preceded by a preposition. In writing, each of the following is acceptable: stay awhile; stay for a while; stay a while (but not stay for awhile). [2] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/awhile Adverb awhile (not comparable[3]) For some time; for a short time. Sit with me awhile. [3] http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#comparable [4] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awhile Definition of AWHILE : for a while See awhile defined for English-language learners[5] See awhile defined for kids[6] [5] http://www.learnersdictionary.com/search/awhile awhile /əˈwajəl/ adverb : for a while : for a short time ▪ I'm going to sit and rest awhile. ▪ The rumor had been around awhile. [6] http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Student&va=awhile > It is fun to know that the sarcasm is exactly the same in french. > > <<Cela va prendre un moment>> > > moment is short, but it means a completely undefined time, probably not > very short. > > so the sentence was correct, the 'manual' was wrong
