Timeline for "Many a year" vs. "many years"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 11 at 13:21 | comment | added | TimR | It was quite commonly used in everyday speech in the greater Philadelphia area by people whose families were originally from Ireland, especially if both parents were from families of Irish descent and hadn't lost many of their speech patterns due to "melting pot" marriages, Irish and German, say, or Irish and Italian. It was used retrospectively whenever I heard it used (e.g. I haven't been there in many a year) never prospectively ("That gangster's going to spend many a year in prison.*) | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 14:09 | comment | added | barbara beeton | @EnglishLearner -- Yes, it is grammatically correct, but very rare in conversation or ordinary prose. It is heard most frequently, I think, in poems or songs. (A memorable one, "Many a New Day", was a highlight of the play "Oklahoma", which was popular when I was a child. I believe a movie clip with it can be found on YouTube. The expression "many a new <something>" occurs over and over again in the lyrics.) | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 12:54 | comment | added | EnglishLearner | Is ‘many a year’ grammatically correct? | |
| Apr 3, 2013 at 14:36 | history | answered | barbara beeton | CC BY-SA 3.0 |