Once in a while you goof

Once in a while even the best of writers makes a mistake. Take this snippet from Yahoo! Tech:

The writer should have used a while. Awhile, an adverb meaning “for a short time,” is never preceded by a preposition like in and for.

Forget about this for a while

I’m thinking we’ll wait awhile for the next homophonous slip-up from Yahoo! Movies:

While awhile is an adverb, while can be a noun or a conjunction. And a while can follow a preposition, while awhile can’t.

After a while, you become oblivious. Almost

There’s lots and lots of grammatical, spelling, and other language errors on the Web. After a while, you almost become oblivious to them. But some are so blatant that they beg for comment, like this from Yahoo! omg!:

The word awhile is an adverb and can never follow a preposition. If you’re looking for the right word to follow for, in, or after, try two words instead: a while.

Thinking about it for a while

Once in a while, a writer uses awhile (which is an adverb) when a while (an article and noun) is called for. Case in point, this blurb from Yahoo! Shine:

As an adverb, awhile is never preceded by a preposition such as for or in. Think about this awhile or for a while, and choose the correct word.