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Groups > alt.usage.english > #1149071
| From | Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> |
|---|---|
| Newsgroups | alt.usage.english |
| Subject | Oh hell! |
| Date | 2026-08-20 13:47 +0100 |
| Message-ID | <neobbsF75csU2@mid.individual.net> (permalink) |
I've sometimes wondered about 'the hell of a' vs 'a hell of a', and have finally typed them into the Ngram Viewer. 'The hell of a' is older, but 'a hell of a' has become much commoner: <https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%28the+hell+of+a*100%29%2Ca+hell+of+a%2C%28the+Hell+of+a*100%29%2Ca+Hell+of+a&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3> 'A hell of a' shows no great Pondian difference: <https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=a+hell+of+a%3Aeng_us%2Ca+hell+of+a%3Aeng_gb&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en-GB&smoothing=3>
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Oh hell! Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-08-20 13:47 +0100
Re: Oh hell! Bertel Lund Hansen <rundtosset@lundhansen.dk> - 2026-08-20 15:27 +0200
Re: Oh hell! Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid> - 2026-08-20 15:34 +0100
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