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In English we often say, for example, "he still has a ways to go before he's done." Is this grammatically correct?

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Related question here. – Peter Shor Dec 6 '11 at 3:35
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Ngram: "a ways to go" is reasonably common in American English (around half the frequency of "a way to go"), but rare in British English. I expect it would be considered ungrammatical in the U.K. – Peter Shor Dec 6 '11 at 3:44
@Peter: I'm afraid we probably do have to consider it "ungrammatical" (c'mon - it's a singular article with a plural noun!), but I think it's mostly seen as quaint and rustic. Like when a Yorkshireman says nowt instead of nothing, naught. More dialectal than uneducated, but ungrammatical nonetheless. – FumbleFingers Dec 6 '11 at 6:25

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

AHD4 has the following entry for ways:

ways n. Informal (used with a sing. verb) Variant of way. See Usage Note at way.

The Usage Note states, in part:

In American English ways is often used as an equivalent of way in phrases such as a long ways to go. The usage is acceptable but is usually considered informal.

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A comment on the dictionary entry--How would you use "a ways" (in the American sense we're talking about) with any verb, singular or plural? Its usual use is as a noun phrase acting as an adverb (e.g. "It's a ways farther down this road."), and I can't think how I'd ever use it as the subject of a sentence. – Peter Shor Dec 6 '11 at 20:44
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@PeterShor I don't believe it happens very often. There is the following dialog from the play The Founders by Paul Green: "GOODY. Come, let's walk by the river, Austin. AUSTIN. A little ways. GOODY. A little ways is all I need." – D Krueger Dec 6 '11 at 22:21
Very nice example. – Peter Shor Dec 7 '11 at 0:56
up vote 6 down vote

As an idiom, the phrase seems well-established in the United States. As Peter Shor said, Ngram shows evidence of this. The Corpus of Contemporary American English gives me 138 hits for "a ways to go" and 193 for "a way to go". Many of these hits are from published print sources. (In the British National Corpus I get no hits for "a ways to go".)

As a native English speaker, I think "a ways to go" sounds fine.

EDIT: Also, see page 949 of the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage.

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I'm British, and it doesn't bother me at all. I know perfectly well it's American, and I imagine most Brits do. But we don't mind talking like Yanks now and then - like some of us sometimes say "buddy" instead of "mate", even though we recognise that such things aren't really our Queen's proper English. – FumbleFingers Dec 6 '11 at 6:14
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We should note, though, that in American English "a ways to go" means something very specific. The hits for "a way to go" aren't really comparable, as the sentences will almost always be addressing something entirely different (e.g., "Is there a way to go to the store without passing any traffic lights?"). – onomatomaniak Dec 6 '11 at 12:10
@FumbeFingers: Do Americans really say 'buddy'? None that I know. Sounds like a movie thing to me. That is, as a call-name 'hey, buddy'...sounds not old fashioned, but from old TV shows like 'Leave it to Beaver'. As a noun...well, this all for another question. – Mitch Dec 22 '11 at 0:25
up vote 1 down vote

No, it is not grammatically correct - "a" is specifically singular, while "ways" is specifically plural.

(Of course, being grammatically incorrect does not prevent it being in common usage.)

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Language evolves; headquarters used to be plural, but now I don't think anybody would object to "a headquarters". – Peter Shor Dec 6 '11 at 13:42
True, but ways outside of the context of this idiom is plural. – Mark Bannister Dec 6 '11 at 14:06
Could downvoters please leave comments so that the answers can be improved? – Mark Bannister Dec 7 '11 at 12:18

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