Rhetoric Rant - 2nd Installment

When I wrote the first Rhetoric Rant post over a week ago, Annette suggested that I do a weekly rant discussing a different grammatical issue each time. I thought about it and wondered if anyone would really be interested enough to read such a thing. To me, grammar is about most exciting topic on earth, but I'm pretty sure not everyone shares my passion. On the other hand, if Annette wants to read about grammar, maybe she's not the only one? And if others don't want to, I guess they can just skip the "Rant" posts, right? I'm not sure I'll write one weekly; I suppose I'll just rant whenever I feel like ranting, whenever a certain issue is really, really bugging me.

Like now.

So a couple days ago, Gerald and I were eating lunch at one of my favorite Utah food establishments, Cafe Rio. As we waited in line, I happened to look up and read the various messages written on the walls. Most of the messages rave about how amazing the food is at Cafe Rio, and I must say they are absolutely right! Their food is amazing. HOWEVER, their grammar is not. One message, written in huge letters on the wall reads, "Hand-made tortillas everyday." Ugh! Seriously?

What is wrong with that sentence? "Everyday" is written as one word. So let's clear up this atrocity once and for all, okay? "Everyday" can be one word in certain situations. When used as an adjective to modify the following word, it should be written as one word. For example, "Sometimes I have occasion to get dressed up in my fanciest attire, but most of the time I just wear my everyday clothes." Here, the word "everyday" is an adjective modifying the word "clothes," and it means regular or common, not special.

Far more often, however, the words "every day" are used to describe something that happens every day of the week:

I go to school every day.
Every day, I get up and shower and dress.
I love to go for a walk every day.
Hand-made tortillas every day.

Here's an easy way to know if you should put the words together or leave them separate. If you can insert the word "single" between "every" and "day," they need to be separate. If you cannot, it should be just one word. You could say, for example, "I go to school every (single) day." But you would never say, "Sometimes I have occasion to get dressed up in my fanciest attire, but most of the time I just wear my every (single) day clothes." Make sense? Good!

For the record, it's not only Cafe Rio that makes this mistake. All seven years that we lived in Billings, my children attended Bitterroot Elementary School. For the most part, I was happy with this school; a couple of the teachers there are among my absolute favorites (Hello Mrs. Strecker and Mrs. Hankins). Sadly, though, the school's mission statement is as follows:

"Everyday is an Invitation to Learning, Laughter, and Living."

People, this is a school! This is its mission statement! And it contains a blatant grammatical error! When Seth was in first grade, every single classroom in the school had a sign with this statement on it, and other such signs were posted in various places throughout the building. They were everywhere. It was all I could do to walk down the halls and maintain my composure. I explained the error as courteously as possible to Seth's teachers year after year, but year after year, they kept those signs up. I felt a bit like Ronald Reagan (perish the thought!) when I wanted to demand: "Mr. Senitte, tear down that sign!" I just now checked the school's website, and the mission statement is grammatically correct there (whew!); however, I have no idea about the physical signs in the school itself. If you are a Bitterroot parent, please pass the torch and keep it burning. If you see a sign with this horrible error, tell someone!

End of rant. Breathe, Terrianne, breathe.