Yes it works with “every so many feet. Meaning " several”.
But my point is that people mean “occassionally” or “sometimes” when they say “every so often”. So often doesn’t stand alone as a phrase by itself. When have you heard someone say “Boy, that was a so often”? You can say “a man”, you can’t say “a so often”.
It’s a corruption of the phrase “ever so often” which has the opposite meaning.
Do you really think each term developed independently of each other?
could you give an example of the phrase “ever so often” being used correctly
I’m familiar with every so often being used for occasionally. I don’t think I’ve ever heard “ever so often”
btw webster lists it. It wouldn’t be the first improper phrase that became accepted.
“I miss home ever so often”.
Interesting - I’m from around the Pittsburgh area and I drop the “to be” all the time. I didn’t know it was a regional thing…
I don’t know what that means. I’ve heard the phrase used to indicate “very” by giggly girls in movies
“Oh My, he was ever so handsome” but I wouldn’t call that nearly as common as every so often.
Doing a quick google I see that it’s english Irish for frequently while every so often means occasionally. Both are technically correct.
But there’s “me”. 
I think you’re mis-parsing “every” in this context. If I say “every 5 minutes”, is this ok with you? You realize that I don’t mean all the “5 minutes” in the world, right? I’m indicating that I’m talking about a recurring interval. You need to think of “so” as an undefined number, a variable. You wouldn’t say “I need a 5 dollars.” either, but that doesn’t make “5 minutes” an incorrect construction. It’s a number, so you don’t need an article to precede it in most instances. Have you ever heard someone say something like “You can’t stir too fast or too slow. You have to do it just so.”, meaning “do it about this fast”? Same thing.
What about other adverbs/adjectives that are modified by “so”? Do you have a problem with those too, such as:
“You can only go so fast”
“He’s only so smart.”
“Add so many pieces of candy.”
Look here. Check definitions 1, 21, 22, 25, and 26. I can’t pick the ones that apply best.
You’re separating “so” from the phrase “so often” which really doesn’t exist on it’s own minus “every”. Every what? Every so often. What’s a “so often”? I sure don’t know.
“Ever so often” came first. Think about it. It makes sense. Meaning “very often”.
It eventually became “every so often”. Or do you think “ever so often” arose from “every so often”? As I mentioned before, I doubt each came about on their own independent of each other.
“Ever so often” just plainly makes sense.
“Every so often” can’t be deconstructed to make sense. It’s just an idiom that began as an entirely different phrase.
And, finally. What a huge coincidence it would be that they came about separate from each other but somehow ended up antonyms.
Yeah, and I really hate awful! It’s only a corruption of the word aweful, which means full of awe. If you say something’s awful, you’re really meaning it’s full of awe!
And meat. And met. And mat. And tam. And tame. And mate.
does it matter? you indicated people use every so often [occasionally} when they mean ever so often {frequently} I’ve never seen that but maybe some do. You also seemed to imply that every so often is an improper term.
every so often is an accepted term in the language. the end, thanks for playing
what do we have for him Johnny?
Sure it does. “So” as a general term exists in at least the following setups:
“We only need so much salt in our diets”
“I like to go only so fast, but no faster”
You can use the same construct, so: “I can only go boating so often–any more and it’s a terrible waste of gas money.”
Never said that. I’m saying they (mis)use a term that’s a corruption of another term.
I know when people say “every so often” they mean occasionally.
And “ever so often” means frequently.
Yeah, what is my prize Johnny?
I meant that Intelsoldier was addressing “so” as a single word in itself.
Again, I’m saying that “every so often” implies “all the so oftens”. All the what?
The “so oftens”. There are “so oftens”? I never knew.
In your sentence “I can only go boating so often…”, “so” describes how often.
Not the same as in “every so often”.
Here’s another way to look at it.
Look at how the inflection works.
every SO OFTEN-This implies that “so often” is a phrase unto itself.
EVER so often-This implies that “ever” qualifies “so often”.
I hear people stress “every” in the phrase: EVERY so often
This how it becomes evident that it came from EVER so often.
Same inflection.
No animosity intended. Truely.
Sure there is such a thing as so long or so often.
I need a board about so long (Hold hands up a distance apart)
How heavy is that ____? It’s about so heavy (points to a heavy object)
We need to brace this wall about every so often (Points to a spot several feet from the first brace)
All of these sentences make perfect sense if you were on a construction job and someone said them to you.
I didn’t say there was no such thing as “so often”. I said a “so often”.
See the difference?
If you can have “every so often”. Then you must be able to have a single “so often”.
How about this sentence:
“I go to the jobsite a so often.” Doesn’t quite work.
Neither does “I go to the jobsite every so often”.
I understand it’s commonly used. So is “ain’t”.
So tell me, what are the two words that comprise that contraction?
I’ve never heard “There but by…” and anyway you’re still saying that God’s giving you something the other did not receive.
People who use stupid replacements for “anyhow.” Anywho, anywhistle, whatever. Just stop it!
Here’s your first post on the subject.
it reads “and occasionally when they mean frequently.” Now you’re saying you know that’s not true???
Maybe that’s not what you meant but that’s what you wrote. That’s all we have to go by. I have no idea if every so often is a corruption of ever so often. Don’t care. Evidently both are recognized and correct terms.
You’re parting gift is this lovely Yawn!!
Are there “so longs”? “So fasts”? “So heavies”? “So smarts”? “So manies? “So muches”? So fars”?
If not, then how would the following sentences be possible?
“I need a board about so long” (Hold hands up a distance apart)
“How heavy is that ____? It’s about so heavy” (points to a heavy object)
“You can only go so fast”
“He’s only so smart.”
“Add so many pieces of candy.”
“We only need so much salt in our diets”
“I like to go only so fast, but no faster”
“He can throw the ball about so far” (Indication of distance)
“I can only go boating so often–any more and it’s a terrible waste of gas money.”
These are all examples people have offered of the use of the word “so” in the same construct.
There are “so oftens”–“so” in this usage is an indication of an imprecise measurement, just as in the examples above. “Often” indicates that the interval being approximated is time, just as the examples above are using imprecise measurements of weight, speed, intelligence, quantity, volume, speed or distance. A “so often” would be whatever increment of time you’re indicating whether it be five minutes or five years, just as a “so long” might be eight inches, a “so heavy” might be the same weight as a sandbag, a “so fast” might be 55mph on the I-5 freeway if you’re my grandfather, and so on.
I’ve never heard anyone use the phrase stressing the word “every”; if anything it would be the word “often” though I can’t say there’s really any noticeable inflection at all. Imagining someone saying “I visit my grandmother, EVERY so often” just sounds bizarre to me. There is definitely no resemblance to the inflection of a giggling Jane Austen character saying “I wish he would visit ever so often”.
No animosity intended here, either. I just think you’re wrong 