"All of a sudden" vs. "all of the sudden"
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Chapters
00:00 &Quot;All Of A Sudden&Quot; Vs. &Quot;All Of The Sudden&Quot;
00:16 Answer 1 Score 4
00:34 Accepted Answer Score 16
00:48 Answer 3 Score 0
01:04 Answer 4 Score 0
01:16 Thank you
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Tags
#expressions
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 16
"All of a sudden" is the idiom. I rationalize that there is no particular sudden, so it has to be a sudden.
Brians Common Errors backs me up here, although idioms don't necessarily follow the rules of grammar anyway.
ANSWER 2
Score 4
Each one of those 63 million results says that all of the sudden doesn't really make any sense.
The idiom
All of a sudden : very quickly and unexpectedly, suddenly.
A sample sentence would be
I felt a sharp pain in my side all of a sudden.
ANSWER 3
Score 0
Because when you say the phrase really quickly, the words get pressed together and it can sound like you are saying 'the' sudden. So that is why people start saying it the wrong way.
ANSWER 4
Score 0
Generally suddenly expresses exactly the same meaning and is more elegant.
If you must use it, I agree that all of a sudden is the correct usage.