![]() ![]() June Casagrande is the author of "It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences. Hopefully, this lesson can reduce some of the mental health hazards associated with parking. Because "awhile" is an adverb, it should not follow "for" in this expression. You can use this same lesson to choose between "awhile" and "a while." In "Stay for a while," the preposition "for" needs a noun like "while" for an object. So when you have to choose between it and its two-word cousin, remember that, after "at," only the two-word "any time" will do. Here in the States, though, the one-word "anytime" is sanctioned by dictionaries as an adverb. According to "Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage," English experts on the other side of the Atlantic don't recognize the one-word "anytime," which seems to have disappeared altogether from formal British usage since the 1940s. Interestingly, this may only apply in American English. We tallied the votes from this year’s Best of the Capital Region contest in 100 categories. ![]() So you could write "No parking any time." What follows must be a noun like "time," which can have an adjective like "any" modifying it.Īdverbs, aside from their most famous job of modifying verbs, also answer the questions "where?" and "when?" So after "No parking," if you want to answer the question "when?" an adverb is a good choice: "No parking anytime." However, noun phrases can function adverbially, too. Medicare and vice versa, or switch from one Part D drug plan to another. Prepositions take objects, which are usually nouns or pronouns. Everyone with Medicare Advantage has two opportunities to change plans each. To understand why the sign "No parking at anytime" was wrong and why "No parking anytime" and "No parking at any time" are both right, you need to look at the parts of speech involved. It's really just an explanation of how we talk normally - whether we understand the mechanics of our own speech or not. It's not a list of laws made up by some elite group. That, in a nutshell, captures what grammar is all about. ![]() I don't think I can tell you why without a fair amount of stammering."īeing a little grammar obsessive myself, I find it fascinating that, though none of the users on that message board could explain the difference between "anytime" and "anytime" or how "at" affected the sign, they all had it right. Anybody? (any body?)" one wrote, hoping for confirmation. "I would agree: 'No parking at any time.' However, 'no parking anytime' is also acceptable. "I think it should have read 'No parking anytime,'" she wrote. The person who saw the sign all those years ago didn't think the word "at" belonged in it. These days, we grammar obsessives are out of the closet and finding help and friendship in online communities like the message board on which I found the discussion about the difference between "anytime" and "any time," and how the word "at" might affect which one you should choose. But if you chose (3.) you might be a grammar obsessive. If you chose (2.) you may be an Angeleno. ![]()
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