When to use everyday?

[lindbergh]

I'm a bit confused on when to use everyday and every day. I just looked it up in the dictionary and I found out that it's an adjective. Could you please give some examples when to use everyday and every day? I always thought before that they were simply interchangeable. Lol.

[petrushka]

Everyday is indeed an adjective. It's synonymous to ordinary, common, or normal - something that occurs daily so it's something you might encounter every single day. This means that the word "everyday" can't really stand alone since it needs to be followed by a noun to describe.

Every day is an adjetive + noun phrase wherein the word "every" is describing the noun "day". It means something that you do daily. A simple way to determine if you need to use "every day" is if the sentence still make sense when it is replaced with "each day" or, like I did in the first sentence, put a "single" between every and day and see if it still makes sense.

I commute to work every day.

My everyday commute is rather long.

In the first sentence, you'll still understand the sentence even if you change "every day" to "each day" or putting a "single" between:

I commute to work each day.

I commute to work every single day.

But the second wouldn't make sense like that:

My each day commute is rather long.

My every single day commute is rather long.

[Baburra]

I think everyday is more synonymous with daily which pertains to something more collective, whereas every day is probably closer to saying each day or something similar and I think that means that the sentence is trying to convey a picture that shows each individual day as opposed to just speaking of it as a regularity.