The phrase "a while to identify" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the time it takes to recognize or determine something.
Example: "It took a while to identify the source of the problem in the system."
Alternatives: "some time to recognize" or "a moment to determine".
It took me quite a while to identify it.
So foreign was it that it took a while to identify it.
They will take a while to identify their priorities, just as I'm doing.
The young Housman doesn't recognize his older self, of course, and the older man takes a while to identify the lad he once was.
He plans to take a break from mitochondrial research for a while to identify actionable therapeutic targets for patients with novel genetic diseases.
It may, however, take a while to identify the congress's overall ideological hue because 120 of its 200 members are independents elected on individual slates, usually without advertising a religious or informal party affiliation.Some ugly xenophobic traits, however, have also become apparent.
Some anti-censorship organisations spread the word via instant-messaging services: people looking for a proxy simply send an instant message to one of these groups and immediately receive an automated reply with a recently updated list of proxies.These methods work because it usually takes censors a little while to identify and block new proxies.
In greenhouse micro-ecosystems, researchers will add extra nutrients to trigger such a flip, while working to identify early indicators of the impending change.
While declining to identify a Candidate A in his congressional race (for the record, the unscathed one was Mike Ferguson, the winner), Assemblyman Weingarten described one ad: "It went, 'Joel Weingarten supported tax increases when he was a councilman in Millburn, and taxes went up x percent.' " He did support some increases, Mr. Weingarten said, and taxes did go up x percent.
While attempting to identify a cover crop of grass at one farm, Sarah was able to teach me techniques to identify grasses (which should come in handy in my Field Crops class during the fall semester!!) such as looking for oracles.
Meanwhile, around the world from MIT in Pune, India, residents near the landfill that holds the waste from that city have been protesting for its closure for years, while efforts to identify a new landfill have been repeatedly delayed much to the frustration of the residents.
