Have you seen sentences with "every day" and others with "everyday" and you are not quite sure which one is correct? Well, I've got some good news for you! They are both correct! BUT, there is always a "but", right? They have different meanings, therefore different ways of using them. Let's take a look at some examples
I wake up at 6:00 am every day.
She walks her dog every day.
For most Brazilians, everyday crime is a much more imminent threat than terrorism.
I am interested in writing about my everyday life.
Sentences number 1 and 2 use "every day" because they are saying that they do those activities each day. While sentences 3 and 4 use "everyday" because they want to say something like ordinary, typical or usual. "Everyday" is an adjective in those examples. Let's rewrite the sentences using their alternatives.
I wake up at 6:00 am each day.
She walks her dog each day.
For most Brazilians, usual crime is a much more imminent threat than terrorism.
I am interested in writing about my ordinary life.
Can you tell the difference now? If so, write one sentence using "every day" and another using "everyday" on the comments below.
If you still can't understand the difference, let me know leaving a comment below.
I've been teaching English as a second language since 2002 and I was really young when I started doing it. Though I had been trained to teach English, my first class was not what I had expected. My students were old enough to be my parents or even grandparents. No training can prepare you for real life. To me, there is nothing like practice. It is in the classroom, or in my current case on a Skype call, where we discover our students' needs and difficulties and how to address them. I remember learning that students would have "heart attacks" when we started teaching the Present Perfect, for instance, but though it is a complicated verb tense, especially to Brazilians (we don't have this verb tense in our native language), what I realized is that Simple Present was not as easy for my students as I had anticipated or been trained to expect. Most of my students make mistakes when using this tense, probably the same amount of mistakes they make when using Present Perfect.
Sometimes I hear my students say things like "I'm like to travel", I'm work for the government", I'm go to the gym twice a week" when they should say "I like to travel", I work for the government", I go to the gym twice a week." I guess this happens because the first thing most students learn is the famous Verb To Be and they probably think saying "I'm" is the same is saying "I", so they just stick verb to be everywhere. Maybe Verb To Be should not be the first thing to be taught. Another thing they struggle with is when the subject is not a pronoun. They will say things like: "My mother and my father works for Unilever". In their minds "my mother" is "she" and "my father" is "he" and when it's he or she we put the letter S in the end of the verb. Other times they think the S in the end of the verb represents the plural and since there are two people, then they must say "works".
These mistakes are often made by adult learners and I sometimes wonder if this happens because of anxiety. Adult learners put a great deal of pressure on themselves and that might get in their way. There is no fun in learning for most of them. With that in mind, when I teach the Simple Present to adults I always have them talk about the things they do for fun. I ask them to describe their weekends, to talk about celebrations, such as Easter, Christmas, New Years and they seem to enjoy it a bit more than talking about their routines. If you are reading this and you are a student, how about writing about your favorite celebrations. What do you usually do? Where do you usually go? Who do you spend them with? What do you usually eat? (You could even record yourself speaking and send your audio to me. I'll be happy to check it for you. Send it to suporte@elearningforall.org) If you are a teacher reading this, I'd love to read your comments on this topic and your suggestions.
Vou responder essa pergunta, mas primeiro deixa eu te contar um pouco sobre como eu aprendo idiomas. Eu comecei a aprender inglês quando era bem pequena, então o meu processo de aprendizagem foi mais natural e diferente dos muitos alunos que ensino hoje em dia, pois eles são adultos. Eu imitava o que via nas séries de televisão ou nas telas do cinema. Comprava CDs e colava as letras no box do meu banheiro para poder cantar no banho, eu queria pronunciar tudo como os nativos pronunciavam e eu sou assim até hoje. Assisto vídeo no Youtube, escuto rádios online, converso com nativos, tudo isso para falar da forma mais correta e parecida a um nativo. Seis anos atrás decidi aprender espanhol e o meu processo de aprendizagem foi bastante diferente comparado a quando aprendi inglês, mas uma coisa foi igual, a minha obsessão para falar como os nativos. Faço isso porque não gosto de explicar o tempo todo que sou brasileira (não porque tenha vergonha da minha nacionalidade), gosto de passar desapercebida, assim me tratam como qualquer nativo do local. Pode ser um pensamento bobo, mas assim me sinto mais confortável e parte da comunidade na qual estou vivendo. Eu prefiro falar inglês ou espanhol tentando esconder meu sotaque para que as pessoas não percebam que eu não sou daquele lugar, mas isso não significa que ter um sotaque é errado. Na verdade, manter um sotaque é, para muitas pessoas, uma maneira de manter uma conexão com suas origens e não tem nada de mal nisso. A pronúncia é o que realmente importa, pois se você é capaz de pronunciar bem, as pessoas vão te entender e você poderá se comunicar perfeitamente. Eu adoro a série Modern Family e adoro ainda mais a personagem Gloria que é uma colombiana. Ela tem um sotaque bem marcante, mas fala inglês bem e na maior parte do tempo consegue se comunicar. Para nossa diversão, ela às vezes comete uns erros de pronúncia que geram muita confusão e eu queria mostrar um desses momentos no vídeo abaixo. Primeiro, assista ao vídeo. Depois eu te explico tudo!
Leia agora o diálogo da cena.
Gloria: Jay! This came for you. Jay: Oh, hi, honey.What is it? Gloria: I called your secretary and told her to order you some crackers and those cheeses that you like. the tiny little ones. Jay: Thanks. Gloria: I know that I have an accent, but people understand me just fine. Jay: What the hell is this? Gloria: I told you, Jay. I called your secretary and told her to order you a box of baby cheeses. Gloria: Oh, so now that is my fault too. Gloria explica que ligou para a secretária de Jay e pediu para ela encomendar uma caixa de "baby cheeses" que seria um tipo de queijo pequenininho como o que você pode ver na imagem abaixo:
Mas a maneira como ela pronuncia soa como "baby Jesus", menino Jesus. E é isso que Jay recebe. Nada a ver com o que ela tinha encomendado.
Se você quer manter seu sotaque, não tem nenhum problema! Simplesmente, fique atento para ter uma boa pronúncia e você não terá problemas!
Espero que você tenha gostado desse artigo e que te seja útil. Até a próxima!
P.S: Eu tenho um curso de pronúncia de inglês em 5 aulas de 1 hora via Skype que pode te ajudar. Mais informações através do email contato@elearningforall.org.
