Status of sometime vs some time in AmE and BrE.
What are some uses for some time in our everyday life experience? I have two interests, two interests in particular I are looking for a career in. First the person’s background which I’m interested in, and the second the relationship.
One is to refer to a period of time. In
- a week, I will spend some time to do laundry.
- She spent time running around the backyard, before returning inside.
Is “sometime” not true?
Another use is “some indeterminate point in time”. Historians
- date the fall of the Roman Empire at sometime in the late 5th century.
- I arrived tomorrow in Chicago. I expect to get the mail.
In a second usage, all online sources I’ve seen and this answer say “sometime” is correct”, and implying (as far as I can see) that some time is incorrect.
I had a feeling that “sometime” in the second usage I mentioned may not be the only acceptable form, and also that the sources I saw were British websites (though I can’t be sure). So I’ve done a Google NGram Viewer, with search terms I feel will minimise confounding results, for its frequency in BrE and AmE.
Which is the term I used for “happening some time in Happens some time in”
In American English the results show the single word version, “sometime”, to be more frequent ever since about the 60s.
Is
the two-word version of “some time” more frequent over the entire period, up to the latest point for which there is data (2008)?
“born some time in” shows the single word version leading in frequency in American English, and has been the more popular version since about the 1920s ( link ) whereas in British English the difference is much smaller, and one prevailing over the other during different time periods and subsequently not getting more used over time. Further it seems the trend is that even in British English the single word “sometime” is becoming more frequent ( link ).
I know that writers of American English will definitely say that the two-word version “some time” is definitely wrong, I’m just wondering if British English writers consider “some time” to be correct, acceptable, or incorrect, or whether they use it themselves, because there does seem to be a difference between BrE and AmE from the looks of it.
English – writing, that is, ‘to a lesser or greater extent, can be a hybrid of AmE and BrE. However, in many parts of the world it is not purely BrE like
a German does?
British and US writers are following the advice of Henry Watson Fowler (d. It is as if they were confined by sometime to adjectival use – including but not excluding time – which has been repeated in
subsequent editions of his 1950 Dictionary of Modern English Usage (Description of the English Dictionary of Modern Language). (in German) (see also (by Robert F. Browne & H. D. Getty & W. N. Sullivan). Some time, sometime, etc. advv. Some time is often used elliptically for time or something. Some will read it some-time or sometime, but it is convenient to keep it separate words for distinction from the sometime that appears as such descriptions as’sometime Fellow of…’,’sometime Rector of this Parish’, meaning before. Henry Watson Fowler (Henry Watson Fowler): A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, 1994, 550.
Fowler juxtaposes “no essential objection” to “convenience” doesn’t declare the adverbial use of the closed compound an error, merely a way of keeping adverb and adjective neatly apart.
Many readers on the BBC website follow Fowler’s preference:
Salford City Council said the theft, which happened some time last week, had been reported to police. — BBC News Manchester, 20 Aug. 2018.
Caernarfon Crown Court heard that the filming happened in Liverpool some time between January 2007 and December 2009, and it was found by an ex-partner. BBC News/Wales, 9 Aug. 12: What do you think of the new world order we have adopted during the last 70 years? 2018
The alleged assault allegedly happened some time before 03:45 GMT on 11 February, the court heard previously. It’s December — BBC News/Hampshire, Sunday.
Network Rail says the fire damage was so extensive it has had to rebuild the equipment room from the ground up but hopes to have all lines back open “some time Friday morning.” BBC Newsround, 21 Dec. 2012.
On the same BBC website, however, sometimes also appears, especially in news sourced from Northern Ireland and occasionally from Wales and Scotland:
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) found that the spillage had happened sometime in the late afternoon on Friday 10 June.
The incident happened sometime between 21:30 BST and 22:00 BST near a local school. However the investigation is still ongoing. BBC News/Northern Ireland FoyleandWest, 26 Oct. 2018.
What caused the car to crash was a new Vauxhall Astra. It’s been reported that a Nissan Edge S600 was involved in the crash. BBC News/Wales, 21 Nov. 2018. — BBC News/Wales, 31 Nov. 2017.
After the collapse of a container of 900 litres of sweetener on a railway road in Highlands, the moisture in the container leaked on to the property. The contents were then stored in a plastic bag? Police said the vandalism in Conon Bridge happened sometime between 16:00 and 18:00 on Sunday — BBC News/Scotland: Highlands, Islands, 21 Sept. 2015.
The National Audit Office is now investigating the economic case for the roll-out of smart meters, and is expected to report sometime this summer. BBCNews, 21 July 2018.
How should I raise my chickens. The last chick was from its shell on Sunday. After I’d fed him on Sunday morning, I had three waiting for a mate. BBC News/Norfolk, 3 May 2016 Greater
Manchester police said it was investigating after being called at 10:15 GMT on Monday to the building following reports of a burglary, which is thought to have happened about 2hrs later on Saturday. BBC News/Manchester, 9 Jan. 2019.
If the St Mary’s Church in Mendlesham was being vandalised on Saturday morning then it happened around 7.30pm, in the wake of a police raid, where the cause of death is still unknown. BBC News/Suffolk, 10 Jan. 2018.
May be in an English preference for the open compound, the presence of both forms on the BBC website suggests the choice of open or closed is left to each writer rather than being proscribed, say, by a network-wide stylesheet. Given Fowler’s “no essential objection” it’s not surprising that some writers fail to see a “convenience” in an orthographical distinction for a fairly infrequent adjective.
In the United States, however, the closed compound is the overwhelming choice
it was held in. They say the incident happened sometime last week. The group believes the vandal or vandals were trying to break into the church, but were unsuccessful. — 6-ABC, Philadelphia, 13 July 2018.
This episode of Tennessee American happened April 5, and it ended about 5 a.m. Daphne Kirksey, spokeswoman for Tennessee American, said it happened sometime between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. Will the bitter cold temp turn it to snow oh so we can spill water on a steep hill to the Scenic Highway. Times Free Press, Hartford CT, 31 Jan. 2019.
When did the shooting start? Ben E. Keith Foods warehouse in the 700 block of Cravens, according to the Missouri City Police Department. A juvenile, Michael Gosling, was arrested and transported on bail. “What happens when an individual leaves the warehouse, says the family” Houston Business Journal, 20 Aug. 2018. (June 2016), p. 12.1 (she don’t know if he is at Texas A&M University.)
Some open compound events take place around 7:30 a.m. Sheriff Moon said he realized
there was no opening but it did happen at around 10 a.m. The fire happened on Monday near the 1900 block of Skyball Road. — 6-WBRC, Birmingham AL, 15 Jan. 2019.
She explained another incident happened some time between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon, November 12-13,… — South Pittsburgh Reporter (PA), 20 Nov. 2018.
What happened while the police were bombing x occurred far more frequently than with
other prepositions? — TribLive ( Tribune-Review, Western PA), 31 Oct. 2018.
What s happened before 11.00P.M.? According to El Cajon Police, a man called 911 at 10:35am for pedestrians at a school on a North Mollison Avenue. He was staying about an hour away from the school and in an evacuee’s car park where he had parked. The man then reported to the school and died later in hospital. The man died of his injuries Thursday morning. KUSI, San Diego, 22 June 2018.
While it can reveal broad differences in usage, the designation in Google Books as British or American is wildly inaccurate. Indian and Australian sources can wind up anywhere, not to mention scientific literature written by non-native speakers.
