Meaning & use
all of a sudden
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UK/ˌɔːl əv ə ˈsʌdn/
US/ˌɔːl əv ə ˈsʌdn/
Meaning
phrasefixed phraseinformal
Very quickly and without any warning.
Grammar: Fixed phrase: the standard form is all of a sudden, not all of the sudden.
Patterns
- all of a sudden, something happened
All of a sudden, the lights went out.
We were chatting, and all of a sudden she left.
All of a sudden it started to snow.
Common combinations
- all of a sudden it
- All of a sudden it began to rain.
- and all of a sudden
- And all of a sudden the room fell silent.
- all of a sudden everything
- All of a sudden everything changed.
- all of a sudden he
- All of a sudden he stood up.
Synonyms and how they differ
- suddenly
- Suddenly is a single word and works in any register, while all of a sudden is a chattier phrase.
- abruptly
- Abruptly stresses roughness or harshness of the change.
- out of the blue
- Out of the blue stresses surprise, as if from nowhere.
- unexpectedly
- Unexpectedly is formal and describes what you did not predict.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: all of a sudden or all of the sudden?
all of a sudden vs all of the sudden
All of the sudden is a very common mistake for all of a sudden; use a, not the, in careful writing.
Practice
Which is the standard form of the phrase?
Choose one answer.
All of a sudden is the established form. The others are variants or errors.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “all of a sudden”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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