"Little by little" - how to spell it correctly

Understanding the spelling of adverbs, they usually decide on a continuous spelling, with a hyphen or separately. If the question arises of how the word "little by little" is spelled correctly, you should remember that only continuous spelling is permissible. In scientific sources, one can find reasoning about the preposition "by" and the word "little", but the last part of this construction is inorganic in the lexicon of a native speaker.

A simple rule about spelling adverbs

The main difficulty in the continuous or separate spelling of adverbs is the presence in the Russian language of the same prefixes and prepositions. The first step is always to determine the part of speech: the preposition is always isolated, and the prefix is a part of the word. In this case, such difficulties seem far-fetched: separate spelling leads to the appearance of a dubious word form, which is unnatural. This makes it possible to reject the hypothesis of separate spelling, but some people get the idea of spelling with a hyphen.

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Determining how to spell correctly, "little by little" or "little by little", is easy if the writer knows the method of checking or spelling norms of the Russian language. By learning the spelling of adverbial prefixes, you can avoid doubts and common blunders.

An adverb that is formed from an adjective or pronoun is written with a hyphen only in three cases: if it ends in -om, -em or -i (-ski). This rule not only regulates the spelling options for individual lexical units, but also allows you to quickly check the correctness of word forms that do not fall under it. It is correct to write "like a man", "like a spring" and "in a different way", but "little by little" falls out of this series and definitely should not be written in this way.

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How to resolve difficulties

Even if there were some differences in the old grammar from the modern versions, this does not mean that they can be used painlessly, without making a gross mistake. Outdated options are no longer enshrined in spelling norms and references to them are inappropriate. You can simply learn three variations of the endings of adverbs and apply them as a test criterion. This will save you from difficulties with any test option: literacy testing, typing your own text on a computer keyboard or writing a dictation.

Simple line of reasoning:

in a separate spelling, a significant word does not look natural, inherent in the Russian language;
hyphenated spelling is incorrect, because "little by little" does not end with -th, -th, or -i;
the only option remains is the prefix, which is spelled together with the stem of the word.

For memorization, you can use elementary, simple or complex literary examples:

Let's take a little from here to each of them on a plate, and put the rest back in the refrigerator.
Increase the load a little every day, and after a while the overwhelming will seem acceptable.
Swallow ice cream little by little, no need to bite off in large chunks.
We are gradually moving towards the completion of what we have begun, but we would like to accelerate the pace.
So, little by little, Tanya cleaned up two kilograms of small sprat.

Outcomes

To learn that the continuous spelling "little by little" is the only correct one in almost all cases, you can look for correct spellings in literary texts and remember a simple rule about the endings of adverbs.