Consider a subshift over a finite alphabet, $Xsubset Lambda^{mathbb Z}$ (or $XsubsetLambda^{mathbb N_0}$). With each finite block $BinLambda^k$ appearing in $X$ we associate the empirical measure ascribing to every block $CinLambda^l$ the frequency of occurrences of $C$ in $B$. By comparing the values ascribed to blocks $C$ we define a metric on the combined space of blocks $B$ and probability measures $mu$ on $X$, whose restriction to the space of measures is compatible with the weak-$star$ topology. Next, in this combined metric space we fix an open set $mathcal U$ containing all ergodic measures, and we say that a block $B$ is ergodic if $Binmathcal U$. In this paper we prove the following main result: Given $varepsilon>0$, every $xin X$ decomposes as a concatenation of blocks of bounded lengths in such a way that, after ignoring a set $M$ of coordinates of upper Banach density smaller than $varepsilon$, all blocks in the decomposition are ergodic. The second main result concerns subshifts whose set of ergodic measures is closed. We show that, in this case, no matter how $xin X$ is partitioned into blocks (as long as their lengths are sufficiently large and bounded), after ignoring a set $M$ of upper Banach density smaller than $varepsilon$, all blocks in the decomposition are ergodic. The first half of the paper is concluded by examples showing, among other things, that the small set $M$, in both main theorems, cannot be avoided. The second half of the paper is devoted to generalizing the two main results described above to subshifts $XsubsetLambda^G$ with the action of a countable amenable group $G$. The role of long blocks is played by blocks whose domains are members of a Fo lner sequence while the decomposition of $xin X$ into blocks (of which majority is ergodic) is obtained with the help of a congruent system of tilings.
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