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.
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).
“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)
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.
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).
Does not have to be Before Christ.
“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.
Only if you allow the ignorant to remain uncorrected.
“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)
Can’t we just embrace adverbification and agree to write “suddenly”?
No! For made up reasons I don’t understand adverbs are verboten!
If “all of the sudden” becomes standard I will definitely do this.
all of the suddenly?
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.
Erin: “All of the sudden, I was awake.”