Everyday or every day?

Hi. I'm Adam. Welcome back to www.engvid.com . Today I have a very simple lesson for you.

We're going to look at the difference between the word "every day" and "everyday".

Some of you might not realize that there's a difference between these two things. "Every

day" -- you use it all the time, you use it every day, I think. You use it talking about

habits and things you do on a regular basis. For example, "I brush my teeth every day."

"You go to school every day", or "You go to work every day, except weekends maybe."

"Every day" is an adverb of frequency; it talks about how often you do something. Monday,

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day.

"Everyday" on the other hand is an adjective. It has a completely different meaning than

"every day". First, let's look at the sound of these two words. "Every day"; you pronounce

both syllables of the words: "every day", and there's a little bit of a pause in between.

"Everyday", on the other hand, you stress only the first syllable and the second one sort

of dives in.

"Everyday": what does it mean? It means something that is common, like you see it all the time;

it's not unusual. I'll write that down, as well.

Or something that is a little bit unexciting,

basically, is what we mean. Sometimes, we just talk about something that is casual.

Here you have the two things: "every day" -- how often, "everyday" -- you're describing

something, something that's very common. For example you're walking on the street, you

see a man with a very, very bright pink jacket and tights. Is this an "everyday" sight? No,

it's not. You don't see this "every day". It's very, very unusual; very, very strange.

It's not an everyday sight. It's not a common sight. Let's look at a few examples; we'll

understand this a little bit better.

Okay. Let's look at a couple of examples. "Alex thought he found a diamond ring on the

street." He's walking on the street, he sees something shiny, picks it up. Wow. A diamond

ring. Lots of money, right? "It turned out to be" means he found out later, "that it

was ________ glass stone." It wasn't a diamond, just plain glass.

If you thought "everyday", you're right.

What does "everyday" mean? Just not unusual, common, glass stone. You see

these all the time. Another thing I could put here is this expression, 'run of the mill'.

'Run of the mill' is an idiom; it means plain, not very unusual, nothing special about it;

everyday. This is the adjective to describe the glass stone.

Let's look at another example. "I read the newspaper ________, but it's mostly filled

with ________ stories about politicians and the economy." When do I read the newspaper?

I read the newspaper "every day". Monday I read the newspaper, Tuesday I read the newspaper,

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and so on. "But it's mostly filled with..." I

read the paper, but why? I don't know why. I don't like reading the newspaper; it's always

the same stories. A politician did this, a politician said that. Or the economy: The

economy is good. The economy is bad. The economy's good. The economy's bad; but it's the same

stories all the time. It's very boring after a while. They're just "everyday" stories.

They're nothing special.

Usually, newspapers... how do they make their money? They write very sensational stories,

very crazy stories, very unusual stories. These days, especially think about America,

the elections, etc., all we hear about is Mitt Romney, Obama, Mitt Romney, Obama, Mitt

Romney, Obama. It's already become "everyday" news. You understand what I'm saying? It's

an adjective about the stories: Mitt Romney, Obama, they're just everyday people now. You

see them all the time. You see them every day on the news.

I hope you understand the difference between these two, and especially this expression,

because it's quite common. It's an everyday expression, if you get my drift. People use

this all the time. People use 'everyday' -- all the time. People use 'every day' all

the time.

At the end of this lesson, there's a quiz. Please take it on www.engvid.com . I will

see you again very soon. Thanks.

Learn English for free www.engvid.com