It looks like the difference between "every day" and "everyday" is dead.

[Siam_Sam]

Thais make absolutely no distinction and just use everyday all the time. They look at you like you’re from Mars if you try to explain the difference. “Stupid foreigner, he doesn’t even understand his own language” is the gist of it. It does not help that even British chains in Thailand chains like Tesco will prominently display on their huge signs: “The Lowest Prices – EVERYDAY!”

[Sangahyando]

@Gorsnak

To be fair, ‘no one’ should be a single word, just like ‘everyone’, ‘anyone’, and ‘someone’.* The only reason it isn’t is because it looks goofy when you take out the space. It’s a poster child for the arbitrary exceptions to rules in the English language.

I agree with Gorsnak, and** El_Kabong**, about the “no one / noone” thing – “noone” indeed looks goofy – and lends itself to misunderstanding. At school in Britain some 55 years ago, I came upon a – thoroughly enjoyable to read – kids’ encyclopedia / fun book which contained all manner of stuff: including a comic poem about the Central American bird the quetzal. It commenced:

“Noone has ever inferred
That there was a finer bird
Than this Quetzal…”

– which had me puzzling for a while, about who this Mr. Noone might be, and what he had against quetzals; until the penny dropped.

[EmilyG]

I always do know the difference between “everyday” and “every day,” but have pretty much given up on it as a lost cause.
It’s merely one example of a recent trend of the spell-checking age - to mis-use a compound word instead of two correct words. Example: “breakdown” in the sentence, “We had to breakdown the data.”

Though this doesn’t explain why so many people spell “each other” as one word. “Eachother” isn’t even a word!

[seal_cleaner]

I point that out almost daily on reddit. I sound like a 60 year old curmudgeon. Which I am, but that’s not the point.

[jtur88]

@Thudlow_Boink

I think you are agreeing with the OP. I’d just add that “every day” as a phrase functions as an adverb.
.

So, then, is “Sunday” a “proper adverb”? In “I go toiwork every day”, “day” is the objective of the absent but understood preposition “on”. I go to work (on) every day, and I go to church (on) Sunday. Yes, prepositional phrases can be either functional adverbs or adjectives.

Never underestimate the grammatical importance of words left out but understood. “Who did it?” To determine the case of the answer (he or him), you have to reconstruct, plugging back in the understood but missing words. “He (did it).”

[Siam_Sam]

@El_Kabong

And a shout out (of profanity) to those who insist on using “noone” rather than “no one”.

Also: “breaks”, what happens when something, like my spirit, gets broken; “brakes”, those things that help stop your car.

ETA: Yeah, I know the above is what guizot is complaining about. Sorry.

@Gorsnak

To be fair, ‘no one’ should be a single word, just like ‘everyone’, ‘anyone’, and ‘someone’.* The only reason it isn’t is because it looks goofy when you take out the space. It’s a poster child for the arbitrary exceptions to rules in the English language.

*See also ‘everybody’, ‘anybody’, ‘shromebody’, and :drumroll: ‘nobody’.

Heh, there is a crime-thriller movie – and I’m not going to say which one – where a main character’s surname is Noone. It turns out to be an an alias, chose by him precisely because it’s No One pushed together.

[PlaceboTarget]

It looks like the difference between “every day” and “everyday” is dead.

Not in my posts, I hope.

[aceplace57]

I’ve never used everyday in my writing.

I’ve always used it as two words. It’s not an expression I need to use very often.

I don’t recall this rule in grammar class. I probably did know it decades ago and forgot.

[kaylasdad99]

@guizot

And those are spelling errors. Just like apostrophes, they don’t have much to do with the issue in the OP.

My point is that whenever any thread comes up about any particular writing error, three things inevitably happen–like clockwork:

1. It rapidly degenerates into random posts about language usage errors, most of which have nothing to do with the OP.

2. Someone comes in to mention apostrophes, and wants to let everyone know that they know how to use them correctly.

3. Someone comes in to make a mindless, simplistic, blanket descriptivist assertion, even though descriptivism (which, as a linguist, I recognize thoroughly), is mostly about speech, not writing.

The error people make when they use “reign in” as though the term had anything to do with exercising control as would a ruler: is that about writing or about speech?

[Dung_Beetle]

My husband will be glad to know that I’m not going to call out this error every time I see it anymore.

Ha ha ha! Yes, I am.

[RTFirefly]

@Sangahyando

I agree with Gorsnak, and** El_Kabong**, about the “no one / noone” thing – “noone” indeed looks goofy – and lends itself to misunderstanding. At school in Britain some 55 years ago, I came upon a – thoroughly enjoyable to read – kids’ encyclopedia / fun book which contained all manner of stuff: including a comic poem about the Central American bird the quetzal. It commenced:

“Noone has ever inferred
That there was a finer bird
Than this Quetzal…”

– which had me puzzling for a while, about who this Mr. Noone might be, and what he had against quetzals; until the penny dropped.

First name ‘Peter.’ (Best known as Herman of Herman’s Hermits, of course.) He was already getting child acting roles >55 years ago.

[RTFirefly]

@Senegoid

We’ve certainly had mentions on this Board of the mis-usage of “effect” vs “affect”.

And I’ve previously mentioned my pet peef (singular of peeves), the mis-usage of “stanch” and “staunch”. Yes, even professional journalists who write the news by which we understand the world screw this up.

These substitutions, and reign/rein which kaylasdad99 brought up, are the only errors in this thread I’ve actually seen, outside of a text or tweet. (Given the limitations of those formats, I’ve never expected grammatical accuracy from them.)

[guizot]

@kaylasdad99

The error people make when they use “reign in” as though the term had anything to do with exercising control as would a ruler: is that about writing or about speech?

The semantics of an utterance are instantiated (or not) in its usage–in the context of the act of speech itself. If “correct” usage were predicated on correct knowledge of word etymology, than a person who never learned to read or write would–by logical extension–never really be able to speak correctly at all, which is absurd.

[norvalnormal]

The substandard “alright” for “all right” is now so ubiquitous, it shows up on television closed-captioning.

[Soylent_Juicy]

Same with “breath” and “breathe” - I see “breath” almost all the time when the sentence calls for “breathe.”

[Riemann]

@norvalnormal

The substandard “alright” for “all right” is now so ubiquitous, it shows up on television closed-captioning.

Are altogether and already also substandard?

[Thudlow_Boink]

@Soylent_Juicy

Same with “breath” and “breathe” - I see “breath” almost all the time when the sentence calls for “breathe.”

Ooh, me too. And it grates on me, because the words sound nothing alike.

@Riemann

Are altogether and already also substandard?

Not substandard, just different words altogether.
Every day when I see this thread title, I get Buddy Holly stuck in my head.

[RickJay]

@Mr_Shine

That’s the way it should work. That is not the way I’ve seen it used recently, even for otherwise intelligent people.

People have been making this mistake for longer than you’ve been alive.

[glowacks]

I like when people make these mistakes, because it proves that they are lesser humans than me, and I am justified in feeling smarter than them.

I might be serious.

[Siam_Sam]

@glowacks

I like when people make these mistakes, because it proves that they are lesser humans than me, and I am justified in feeling smarter than them.

I might be serious.

“…than I.”

HA-ha, I am better than you. :D:cool: