"A little bit": how do you spell this word (separately or through a hyphen)?

The word "a little bit": how do you spell it? You can find out the answer to this question from this article. In addition, we will tell you about which part of speech this expression belongs to, and also under what rule it falls.

General information

The word "a little bit" raises doubts in most people who use it in a letter. And this is not surprising. After all, not everyone who has long graduated from a general educational institution can recall the rule that explains the spelling of this expression. However, it should be noted that this word can be written either through a hyphen or separately. That is, there is no question of its fusion in this article.

Determine the part of speech

The word "a little bit": how is it written in the text? In order to answer the question posed, we need to determine that part of the speech to which the given expression belongs. It's the only way to find a suitable rule of the Russian language, which will explain its spelling.

So, to determine the part of speech, we need to ask the appropriate question for this word. To make this not cause any difficulties, let us give an example of a sentence where this expression participates:

"We (slightly) cut off the sweet pie, and the rest was left for tomorrow."

In this example, the word "slightly" answers the question "how much?", And also has the meaning "a little". According to the Russian language, this expression is an adverb and denotes a measure and a degree.

The basic rule

Adverb "a little bit": how to spell correctly? To answer this question, it is necessary to find exactly the rule that explains the separate writing of this part of speech or through a hyphen. Consider in order.

Separate spelling of adverbs

Such spelling of adverbs, as well as any adverbial combinations can be determined by tradition or depend on how exactly this part of speech was formed.

So, we write separately, if:

• The adverb was formed from another adverb and is a combination of a preposition with an unchangeable word, which is used in the meaning of the noun. For example: pies went to cheers, to reduce communication to no, to pass the session perfectly.
• The adverb was formed from the numerals, has a preposition "by" and a collective numeral (three, four, etc.).
• The adverb was formed from a pronoun with a preposition (on this issue, on that case, etc.).
• The adverb was formed from the adjective in the case form and the preposition (in the open).
• The adverb was formed from the noun in a homonymous form with a preposition (from the beginning or from the beginning).

Remember

Among other things, it is necessary to remember that the following adverbs are always written separately: for centuries, to the place, not to the haste, without demand, without sense, without a twinge of conscience, without restraint, to the cutting edge, to fall, to death, to failure, Pantalik, with kondachka, with excess, under a run, with running start, under a match, from evil, under a mouse, with a fright, with scope, under a nose, under a bushel, etc.

As you can see, the above rule does not include the word "a little bit". How to write this expression, you can already guess right now. After all, if it can not be used in the text separately, then, consequently, it is written through a hyphen. But in order to verify this, another rule of the Russian language should be considered in a similar way.

When is a hyphen put?

Adverbs are written through a hyphen in the following cases:

• If they are formed from pronouns-adjectives or full adjectives with the help of the prefix-suffix method (with suffixes -em, -th, -and prefix). Let's give an illustrative example: differently, truly, humanly, in English, in French, in foxes, etc.
• If the adverb was formed from the ordinal numerals with the aid of the suffix-suffix method (with prefixes in-or with- and suffixes -m or -x.) Let's give an illustrative example: first, third, and secondly, fifthly, in the And so on.
• If an adverb has a prefix of something and postfix, either, it's like that-that's it. For example, for some reason, somehow, someday, well, somehow, somewhere, after all, somewhere, etc.,
• If an adverb was formed by repetition:

- the same word (barely, hardly, hardly, just about);

- synonyms (from the bay-barakhta, at the very least, similarly-pozdovu, unexpectedly-negan;

- the same root, which was complicated by suffixes and prefixes (only, apparently, invisibly, after all, little by little, willy-nilly, long ago).

"A little bit": how do you spell this word? From the presented rule it becomes clear that this expression should be written only through a hyphen. After all, such an adverb was formed by repeating the same word. Therefore, it is correct to write this way: "We cut the sweet pie a little bit, and the rest was left for tomorrow" .

Let's sum up the results

Similarly, the spelling of any word can be explained. The main thing in this case - to determine its part of speech, as well as to consider all those rules that may have to it directly related.