Friday, June 29, 2007

Everyday vs. every day.

So many grammar issues - which to tackle first?

I'll stick with another really common error for today. A lot of people tend to use "everyday" and "every day" interchangeably, but actually, there is a difference.

When using "every day", the writer literally means that something happens every *single* day. For instance, "I brush my teeth every day."

"Everyday", however, is an adjective (a word that describes a noun) that means commonplace or ordinary. For instance, "This is my everyday jewelry, but when I go to the ball, I'll wear something more expensive."

Most of the time, "every day" is the option that should be chosen.

2 comments:

Gerbil said...

Though I myself do not require any assistance with either grammar or spelling, I would like to suggest a few topics for you:

1) "Data" is a plural noun.
2) How did "alright" make its way into the dictionary?
3) When to use an apostrophe to form the plural.
4) "Infer" vs. "imply."

I look forward to your pontifications!

miika said...

Ooh, apostrophes - drives me batty that 90% of the time, someone is using one inapproriately. And really, english is not my mother tongue, I should be the one making the mistakes, not getting ticked at native speakers making them :-)

(not that I don't make any mistakes, but you know what I'm getting at).