awhile or a while?
Both expressions are derived from the word while, but they have different roles in sentences. Awhile is an adverb: Let us wait awhile [not for awhile]. A while - written as two words - is a noun phrase and is normally preceded by for: I'm going to be away for a while. Sometimes, however, the word for is left out, making a while look more like an adverbial phrase, though it is still strictly a noun phrase: We had to wait quite a while. This use is fairly easy to identify because while is qualified in some way, for example, quite a while or a long while.
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