With what time he has left, the "maverick"-an appellation he has worn throughout his career, at some times more comfortably than at others-is going to put country first and tell the truth. You might also come across some times as a noun phrase following a preposition. The adverb is written as one word ("We all make mistakes sometimes"). Use of sometimes is rather uncomplicated. On the other hand, in "It will take some time to fix," the substitution fits, so some time is correct. For example, in "We will arrange to meet some time next week," "a short/long time" is not substitutable for "some time," so sometime is the correct choice. In addition, some time can be replaced with phrases like "a short time" or "a long time," and substituting such a phrase in the sentence can help determine which spelling to use. If it does, some and time should be written separately: "We haven't seen them for quite some time" "He arrived quite some time ago." If it does not (as in "He arrived quite sometime last night"), sometime is the correct choice. In "I have some time to help you," some time functions as a modified noun-together the words indicate what the subject "I" possesses (or has).Īn easy way to tell if some and time should be written as one word or two is to insert quite before some and see if the passage still makes sense.
(Refresher: adverbs indicate the time, manner, place, or degree of a verb, adjective, or another adverb.) In "some time ago," however, some and time still function within the phrase itself as an adjective and a noun, and that duo works together as a noun phrase.Ī common use of some time as a true noun phrase is when it follows a preposition and functions as the object of a prepositional phrase, which is always a noun or noun phrase ("She stayed for some time"). Consider the sentence, "He arrived some time ago." The difference between "sometime last night" and "some time ago" may not be instantly apparent, since both phrases have an adverbial function-they indicate the time, though unspecified, of arriving. The phrase "some time" is also used adverbially. The adverb sometime is a closed compound of some, which indicates an unspecified amount or number, and time ("We should get together sometime" "They arrived sometime late last night"). As you probably guessed, it is some time that causes the most confusion to writers and editors. The adverb sometime can mean either "at some time in the future" or "at some not specified or definitely known point of time in the past." Affixing an "s" to the word forms the adverb sometimes, meaning "at certain times" or "occasionally." Sometime written as an open compound ( some time) also has adverbial use, but it is also a standard noun phrase.
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