Which is it- "a" or "the"

[Tinijocaro]

Whick is it in your neck of the woods- 'All of a sudden" or "All of the sudden"? I have a neighbor who says 'the" and it just sounds soooo wrong.

Also, do you say things like 'The clothes needs washed" rather than "The clothes need to be washed"? This one also drives me nuts.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

All of a sudden.

The clothes need to be washed. (usually "I need to wash clothes")

And here's another:

I say "I am going to take a shower" and my MIL in PA says "I am going to have a shower"

 

[ckmommy]

I say-- all of the sudden.

I also say-- the clothes need to be washed.

 

[Christine]

HA! I've brought this up before. My cousin (who I was pretty much raised with) says "All of the sudden." I think she just misheard the phrase and it stuck. I do believe it should be "all of a sudden" but I also think "caramel" has 3 syllables so what do I know!

 

[stinkerbelle's mom]

All of "a" sudden.

How about the ever popular:

Did'ja eat?

No did'ju?

 

[Michelina]

I say All of a sudden.
I always say things like The clothes need washed or the dog needs out.
I think it's a western PA thing? That's where I'm from originally.

 

[Keli]

I say "All of the sudden"
and I would say "the clothes need to be washed, get busy you guys!" lol

I find it funny that people say "I'm going to have my picture made" instead of "I'm going to have my picture taken".

 

[damo]

All of a sudden and the clothes need to be washed, up here in Ontario.

 

[disneymama73]

All of "a" sudden!

 

[hlbtimes2]

All of a sudden.

My friend says "I need to take the kids a bath", when she needs to bathe her children. Drives me crazy! You take a bath when its yourself, you give a bath when you are helping someone else!

 

[NAB]

All of "a" sudden

but I do say I am going to have a shower not take a shower

 

[alabamaalan]

I've never heard "the" sudden before just "a"

And we normally say "Dang, them clothes stink!"

 

[NMAmy]

I say all of a sudden but dd, who was raised in New Mexico, says all of THE sudden. I always thought she'd misheard it and couldn't let go of it but maybe she heard other people saying it and that's where she got it. Maybe I was the oddball!

I also say the clothes need to be washed.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

The things you learn on the DIS CB

oh - and for me
clothes need to be washed
take a bath/shower
give the kids a bath

 

[Charade]

All of "a" sudden. "the" makes no sense and is most likely improper english.

 

[NMAmy]

All of "a" sudden. "the" makes no sense and is most likely improper english.

Actually, if you think about it, "a" doesn't really make much sense either. Now that I look at it, it's a weird expression.

 

[Christine]

I just google this from www.grammartips.com:

It Is Not "All of the Sudden"!




by Tina Blue
March 30, 2002




Put simply, the idiom is "all of a sudden," not "all of the sudden." That may be all you need from me on this matter, so if it is, feel free to click on out of here.


Most of you probably don't make this error, but I know you have seen it and heard it. What surprises me is not only how often I encounter this butchered idiom, but where I encounter it. I have read it in papers by graduate students in English, and I have heard it from the mouths of pretentious and pedantic newscasters and talking-head pundits on television.


It is difficult for young people to learn the proper forms when so much of the language they hear comes from the mass media, and the mass media so regularly offer up the wrong forms.


Even those young people who read are likely to do much of their reading in mass circulation newspapers and magazines. Unfortunately, those who write for such publications are often not well-versed in matters of grammar and usage, and even those who edit their writings--if indeed much editing is done at all, which I am beginning to doubt--may not be quite as knowledgeable in those areas as we might wish.


"All of a sudden" is an idiom. There is no logical or grammatical reason why we say "all of a sudden" rather than "all of the sudden." It's just that, until recently at least, no native speaker of English would say "all of the sudden," just as no native speaker of English would say "She was hit with a car."


True, idioms are shaped by widespread usage, so that if enough people over a long enough period of time say "all of the sudden," eventually that will become the preferred idiom, and someone many years hence will write an article deploring the fact that some benighted speakers and writers don't know any better than to say "all of a sudden."


But that day has not yet arrived, and until it does, the proper phrasing remains "all of a sudden," and those who use "all of the sudden" will be marking themselves as imperfectly educated, or at the very least as careless in their use of language.

 

[pfishgirl]

All of A Sudden....
the clothes need to be washed...

im taking a shower...
of course you can always get the response... where are you taking it? and when will it be back??

 

[JuliaEeyore]

When I was a kid in 7th grade (somewhere around 1989?), my teached corrected me and told me "all of the sudden" wasn't proper. (Neither was "a"...)

I may SAY "all of the sudden" but if I ever write it, I change it to "suddenly," as I lost points on that paper.

 

[biras jim]

yeah, it's "a" .. but I agree "suddenly" or maybe "unexpectedly" might sound better ... think that was from 8th grade (circa 1980)