"For a while" or "for awhile"
Hey,

I was talking to someone (a British guy) about the carnival in the Netherlands (which is mostly about the question "how to get as drunk as possible?"), when I said: "I guess I'm done partying for awhile." He told me this was old fashioned and is barely used anymore.

However, Google told me there is a slight difference between "for a while" and "for awhile". Could anyone please explain the difference and how to use both of them? Or is this just something personal/country related, since an American friend told me he would use "awhile" in this context instead of "a while".

Thanks in advance (:

Question

"For a while" or "for awhile"
Hey,

I was talking to someone (a British guy) about the carnival in the Netherlands (which is mostly about the question "how to get as drunk as possible?"), when I said: "I guess I'm done partying for awhile." He told me this was old fashioned and is barely used anymore.

However, Google told me there is a slight difference between "for a while" and "for awhile". Could anyone please explain the difference and how to use both of them? Or is this just something personal/country related, since an American friend told me he would use "awhile" in this context instead of "a while".

Thanks in advance (:

Answer

Awhile is used in the place of "for a while" in a sentence. If you can use "for a while" in the place of "awhile" in the sentence, then it's correct. 
http://grammarist.com/spelling/awhile-a-while/
Hope this helped!
-Kyle

Answer

I don't agree with your friend's comment that this form is ' old fashioned and is barely used any more.' This is not a question of fashion, but of basic grammar.

'A while' is a noun phrase meaning 'a certain period of time'. Grammatically, 'a while' is the same as 'a year' or 'a moment'. It's a noun phrase consisting of an article (a) and a noun (while). You would say for example:

'Wait a minute'.
'Wait a while.'

You wouldn't say 'Wait aminute', would you? So there is no reason to write 'a while' as one word, either. This is logical.

'I haven't been there for a long time'
'I haven't been there for a while'

It would be wrong to write 'for along time' here, wouldn't it? And it's equally wrong to write 'for awhile'. Articles are NEVER attached to nouns.

American English does have an adverbial form 'awhile'. British English doesn't. So it would seem to me that the best advice - whichever type of English you use - would be to always write this as two words. A while. This will always be correct. There is never any need to connect the two words.

Answer

Awhile is an adverb meaning for a time.

Your sentence should be for a while, not for awhile.