Following some feedback from readers regarding my previous blog post, I will be starting a series of articles revolving around grammar. I can’t replace Strunk and White, mind you, but at least these posts will clarify some of the little things commonly overlooked or misused in our language. That being said, let’s get to it.
I have come to the conclusion that people’s lives must be incredibly mundane. This conclusion, like many that we young people draw, came from that diverting website Facebook. I can hear you already. Oh, you say, that’s nothing new — in fact, that’s part of the reason Facebook was probably invented! How trite. Even so, the people themselves have spoken.
They have spoken in comments like “all day, everyday” or “I wish the weather was like this everyday!” I am so sorry for them. I really am.
The funny thing, however, is that those I pity are ignorant of their own plight. Why do they deserve this sympathy? I answer with a vocabulary lesson, friends: “Everyday” means commonplace, dull or — as I mentioned previously — mundane.
Let us translate those previous phrases literally, given our new definition. The first, “all day, everyday,” becomes “all day, commonplace.” Again, I offer my condolences. I can only imagine living in a world so horrible as to be both boring and lacking in proper diction.
The second I cannot decipher so easily. “I wish the weather was like this commonplace,” as far as I can tell, is the statement of perhaps a stereotypical valley girl expressing her desire for dull weather. To each her own, then; just don’t get me started on the myriad of other problems with that sentence.
Giving these people the benefit of the doubt, I am guessing they mean “every day.” This term, as most will figure out, simply means “on a daily basis.”
Translated again, “all day, every day” becomes an emphatic declaration by a member of the young and proud social-networking generation. Meanwhile, “I wish the weather was like this every day,” though still somewhat dull, at least expresses an individual’s legitimate and rational desire for certain climate conditions. Power to you people and your accurately expressed thoughts.
It’s an everyday error, but if I have to come across it every day for as long as Facebook exists (i.e. seemingly for the rest of time), I may just cry.
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Actually, “myriad” can be a noun or an adjective.
The word “myriad” should not be surrounded by “the” and “of.” Ironically, this isn’t the first copy mistake in this “copy blog.” I am so sorry for you. I really am.