Please, sign up or log in to not lose your learning progress!

The sudden truth about "all the sudden"

Reviewed and edited by

Anwar Kareem 24/10/2024, 19:03

English.me team member

What kind of error is it?

All the sudden or all of a sudden. What's correct?

Phrase Misconstruction

Why do people make this mistake?

People often mishear or conflate "all of a sudden" as "all the sudden", likely due to the similarity in sound and casual speech patterns.

What is correct?

"All of a sudden" is the correct expression, which indicates something happening unexpectedly or abruptly.

Examples of correct usage

All of a sudden, the lights went out.
It started raining all of a sudden.
All of a sudden, she stood up and left the room.

Recommended posts in Grammar

Why "enviroment" needs an 'n'tervention

Why "enviroment" needs an 'n'tervention

People often misspell "environment" as "enviroment" because the second "n" ... Learn more →

Why "I feel badly" doesn't feel right

Why "I feel badly" doesn't feel right

People often use "badly" due to confusion between how verbs ... Learn more →

Mistakes in plural: why it's never "one phenomena"

Mistakes in plural: why it's never "one phenomena"

People often get confused because "phenomena" sounds singular due to ... Learn more →

Why "has flew" doesn't fly: understanding proper verb conjugation

Why "has flew" doesn't fly: understanding proper verb conjugation

People often make this error due to confusion between simple ... Learn more →