Get a grip: A hold vs. ahold

Do you find yourself going crazy over these two spellings? Well, get ahold of yourself and read on.

A hold as two words typically is a phrase in which hold means something is being held. For example, you might write She’s really got a hold on me or Jerry has put a hold on any more shipments of that defective product.

Ahold as one word usually is accompanied by the verb get and the preposition of; to wit, Darling, get ahold of yourself! It also can mean “grasp” as in He grabbed ahold of my wrist.

And with that explanation, you now should have a hold on the distinction between these two spellings.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.