• @[email protected]
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    5110 days ago

    Upvoted and agreed, not least because I just learned that “all of the sudden,” while at present a nonstandard variant of “all of a sudden,” has valid history.

    And of course it doesn’t matter in this casual context!

    But in formal writing, in this era, using “a” will avoid distracting the reader from your main point.

    • @[email protected]
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      1910 days ago

      “All of the sudden” is only valid because it’s so commonly (incorrectly) used. Much as it annoys me, that’s just how language works.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 days ago

        “of the sudden” (1570) actually predates “of a sudden” (Shakespeare) according to my OED as squinted at through the nifty magnifying glass. But it’s been considered obsolete for a long time despite having all of a sudden experienced a resurgence.

        (Note, I modernized the spellings of “sudden” rather than try to switch focus back and forth)

          • @[email protected]
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            10 days ago

            Nothing wrong with “suddenly.” I probably should have used it in my previous comment. It’s just that sometimes you want to say “all of a sudden.” Especially at storytime. The extra time helps build the suspense. “Suddenly” is more sudden in that it just jumps in there. With “all of a sudden,” the subject isn’t ready but the listeners are.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 days ago

          People aren’t saying it because they’re language scholars, it’s because they misheard the proper modern usage. So it goes for many language shifts.

    • @[email protected]
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      910 days ago

      Non-Anglo here.
      Totally not distracted bcs my brain autocorrected it to “all of a sudden” without even noticing.
      A bit like “It deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are”
      Also never seen/heard the “the” variant. (Well consciously that is).