The English language can be difficult to understand. There are so many different rules that need to be followed in order to speak and write properly that sometimes we forget what the correct way to say a word is or the correct way to spell it.
This is not any different when it comes to words such as ‘every time’ and ‘everytime’. Since the only thing that is different between these two words is a space, we may begin to wonder what truly is the difference between these words. Well, the difference is that ‘every time’ is an acceptable word and ‘everytime’ is not.
There are compound words that are acceptable in the English language, such as everyone and everywhere. There is also a difference in meanings when considering the words ‘everyday’ and ‘every day’, but the same is not true with everytime.
The meaning for the properly spelled word ‘every time’ is on every occasion or all occurrences. As an example, “Every time I go to the lake, I end up getting a sunburn.”
The word ‘everytime’ is used by so many people on a regular basis. This may be because they are unaware that this is not the proper way of spelling it or it could be that they know it is incorrect, but feel that it has a different meaning from ‘every time’. Those that use the word ‘everytime’ use it as a synonym to the word whenever, such as “Everytime I am thirsty, I get a glass of water.”
Although ‘everytime’ is not an acceptable word now, maybe that will change someday.
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