Do You Wear Your Everyday Jeans Every Day?
If so, I hope you wash them at least every third day.
The Grammar Guru has been asked to address the confusion between the usage of the compound word everyday and the phrase every day. Yes, they are two totally different things.
Everyday is an adjective used to describe something that is commonplace or not designated for special use. Most of us have everyday china that’s cheaper and less ornate than our “good” china.
Every day is a phrase containing an adjective and a noun; it is used only when you are referring to a period of time, as in “Mike goes to the coffee shop every day.”
Some confusion may creep in when we have an everyday occurrence. But if you look carefully, you will see that “everyday” in that phrase is simply an adjective telling what sort of occurrence it is.
Personally, I think it’s the failure to properly inculcate an understanding of the parts of speech in our school-children that is causing these lapses of usage. Once you know, really know, what an adjective is, you aren’t likely to misuse it. Oh well. The Grammar Guru digresses.
Just remember, I use my everyday dishes every day, but it isn’t every day that I use Grandma’s bone china.
5 Comments
Great post as always. Thank you. I got a question. I’m writing a story where the main character calls her parents Mother and Father a lot. Things like, “The splinter acted so strange that Mother had to take a knife, heat it, and then dig out the sliver.” Word doesn’t want me to have Mother and Father capitalized. Is Word right and I’m wrong?
Thanks Mum! That’s been on my pet peeve list lately.
Kay-Ren: I’d stick with the capitalization if you are using the words as you’d use someone’s name, i.e. “My mother told me that Father went to the store.” MS Word and WordPerfect both tend to “forget” these little things in language usage.
Kay-Ren…
Jemmie is right. If mother and father are being used as names, then capitalize them. But if they are just referent in a general sense, don’t capitalise. Example: One of my mother’s favorite warnings was to watch out for mama’s boys. OR One of Mother’s favorite warnings was to watch out for mama’s boys.
Thanks for the tip. I had forgotten how helpful this blog is. I must return to it every day.
Editormum, this is good to know. I think I knew it intuitively, picking it up from reading, but I haven’t really thought out the difference.