We often see the word everyday – in advertisements, in letters, on marquees.

When used in writing, it should usually (and most often) be two words: every day: We see joggers on the battlefield every day. It is baffling, since we combine words like “everything”, “everyone”, “everybody”. The exception comes when employing “every day” as the adjective immediately before a noun in a sentence. Then, it can then be one word: An everyday occurrence. Confusing? Yes, it is.

 Our language is unusual with our rules of grammar and spelling, because English rarely follows a complete pattern. There are always exceptions to it. (Try to teach English to someone on pronouncing through, bough, and rough – and see the reaction. There will always be one!)  

Some words in our common vernacular that include the prefix “every” are spelled as one word: like the above mentioned everything, everyone, and everybody. Otherwise, we have two words for almost everything else: every day, every time, every reason. It is the same way with the prefix “some”: something, somebody, somehow, someone – and “any”: anything, anywhere, anyone, anyway.  

The words “every”, “any” and “some” are adjectives. The first and second of these aforementioned words are always followed by a singular word, and the third by indeterminate numbers – sometimes singular, sometimes plural. Depending on the context of the word that follows; the word may be combined or written as separate words: 

   

“Every time we plan a vacation, we go to Gettysburg.” 

 “We hope to go to school every day next semester.”

“Walking on the battlefield is my everyday exercise.”

“Children these days are such picky eaters, I am amazed that they eat anything.”

“Is there be any reason not to walk Pickett’s Charge today?”

“I was planning on visiting the monuments anyway.” 

 “Often some time is necessary to mend intense disagreements.” 

“Sometimes history is murky.”

These words, when used as nouns or adverbs, like everything, everyone, something, sometime, anyone, or anyway (never “anyways”, by the way) are the exception rather than the rule. We happen to use those words quite often, which is why there is confusion with the spelling of the otherwise “normal” patterned phrases.

It’s also confusing in conjugating these words, especially when every is the prefix, such as: Everybody is going to be there. Since it implies quite a few people, one would think that the verb would be plural instead of singular. The word every actually denotes counting each person, place or thing individually – hence the singular verb implementation. It’s the same with everyone and everything: Everyone is going. Everything on the test is easy.  

When in doubt, I use spell-check or grammar check on the computer, or haul out the dictionary from the bookshelf.

We can be grateful, those of us who were born knowing English, that we don’t have to learn it as a second language. It is really a difficult one to grasp linguistically, especially as our language evolves.

 Pass the word! When in doubt, check the spelling – every day. For everything.