My sister-in-law just sent me an email in which she said "He has a ways to go," and then asked, "Should it be a way to go?" I said "a ways to go" sounded more right to me. It is what I automatically say without thinking--but I don't know why. It makes no sense, since "a" would indicate singular, so that it should be "a way to go." At the same time, I would tend to say "a long way to go," instead of "a long ways to go." You often also hear people say, "We traveled quite a ways" but never "quite a way." "Quite a distance,"but never "Quite a distances." Strange,since they mean the same thing.

I googled "a ways to go" in quotes and got over 3 million google hits, so "a ways to go" is certainly in the common parlance.

I suppose it's just an idiom. Do people here consider it correct or incorrect or just a matter of the region where you live? I found plenty of articles which used the phrase in reputable publications, but one, an academic publication on translations of Goethe's poetry, seemed to indicate that the translator who had used "a ways to go" had fallen back on American English instead of using the British "a way to go."

I could not find any articles on this in either World Wide Words or Language Log, but maybe I didn't do the search correctly. The search results in World Wide Words said the terms "a" and "to" had been ignored! That would tend to skip over any articles on the subject.

It seems that the word "way" has a magnetic attraction to the letter "s," as in "always" and "ways and means committee." I guess a committee that dealt with only one budget line would be a "way and mean" committee, and a committee chaired by a grouch would be a way mean committee.

Any thoughts as to the evolution of this expression? I have a ways to go before I can understand it.

Wordmatic

Hard for us to comment. Neither "a way to go" nor "a ways to go" is commonly heard in the UK though I suppose television has given some currency to both. I'd probably go with "ways" but only in a self-conscious aping of the American idiom.

A rearie, a beast quite contrary,
Escaped from his home on the prairie
And was forced off a cliff.
Said his keeper, named Biff:
"It's a long way to tip a rearie."

from yesterday's Word Play. But that's the song title, slightly askew.

The AHD says ways is an informal variant of way and used with a plural verb. From the AHD usage note: "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."

"A long ways to go" got 111,000 Ghits, while "A long way to go" got 2,830,000 Ghits. Similarly, "a ways down the road got 21,900 Ghits and "a way down the road" got 48,600 Ghits.

I tend to use "ways." I think it's probably dialectical, a reflection of my Midwest (Kansas) origins.

Well, and my Ohio roots. However, if I modify "way" with "long," then the "s" is dropped, which doesn't seem logical, but I guess none of this is logical. It's just how you heard it growing up. And that must be the difference between sunflowers and buckeyes. (For our UK friends, Kansas is the Sunflower state and Ohio is the Buckeye state.)

WM

Which brings up the eternal question: Does a girl go all the way or does she go all the ways?
(I much prefer the latter.)

And if she traveled from LA to NY for sex, would you say, "That's quite a way(s) to go all the way(s)"?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,

Interesting question, Wordmatic (and it's great to see you posting again!). It reminds me of my daughter's use of "anyways" (I can't find that thread). For some reason "a way to go" just doesn't seem to sound right to me, either, though "ways to go" probably isn't correct (according to the Strunk and White-ists), either. It must be my midwestern upbringing.