I recently saw a lesson that a teacher had written including the word 'everyday', which is often used in English. The problem was that the sentence read something like this (I forget the exact sentence):
'I get up at 6 o'clock everyday.'
This is clearly wrong! The worst of it is, one would hope that somebody is checking his work before it goes into class, but that does not seem to be the case. If this was in some small English conversation school with 5 students it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this was for university students studying English as part of a hospitality course, which I find unforgivable.
The words 'every day' and 'everyday' are often confused by learners of English (and native English speaking graduates, it seems), especially as the pronunciation is essentially the same, so let me explain the difference and give some examples:
'Everyday' is an adjective that means, ordinary, commonplace or normal. For example:
'I need some shoes for everyday use.'
'That's just one of my everyday worries.'
'Getting stuck in traffic is an everyday occurrence in big cities.'
'Every day' means "each day":
'I have to work every day this week except Sunday.'
'I go running every day.'
'I want to go the beach every day this summer.'
To give the strict grammar rule, everyday is a single word and it is an adjective, so it is used in front of a noun to describe something as normal. Every day is the combination of an adjective (every) and a noun (day), and it means each day.
So, what the teacher should have written is:
'I get up at 6 o'clock every day.'
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