In his "Treasury for Word Lovers," Morton Freeman laid down a workable rule 20 years ago: Spell it as one word after a verb, two words after a preposition. By that rubric, reader Kline had it ...

A letter comes to hand from Robert Kline in Chicago. "I am staying here for a while," he writes, "or on second thought, I may be staying awhile longer. Which is it? A while? Or awhile? One word or two ...

I’m often astounded by the way people use “awhile” and “a while.” And, no, I’m not shocked by how badly they choose between these terms, but by how well. To understand when “a while” is preferable to ...