There are some words we see every day that are sometimes used closed and sometimes open — like everyday and every day. When do we use which of these? In short, we do an everyday thing every day.
Everyday is an adjective or noun to describe something that’s routine or typical or that commonly occurs.
- “That’s just our everyday thunderstorm.”
- “She bought a bouquet of everyday flowers.”
- “I wear these shoes for everyday.”
Every day is used as an adverb to describe something that happens daily (either actually or hyperbolically).
- “We have storms every day in the summer.”
- “I wear these shoes every day.”
The last examples of these two uses are similar, but the meaning can be slightly different and might warrant a bit of thought before rewording from one to the other. For everyday can imply a normal weekday rather than a special occasion or a dress-up day, while every day taken literally would include those special days that for everyday excludes.
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