#1059 Every Dayword

I worry sometimes about our school system. On the one hand, we encourage children to pursue excellence, and then on the other we fail to show that excellence ourselves.
Case in point: The other day I was driving by a local elementary school. It had one of those reader-board signs on its building that you could read as you drove by. The sign said, “Have a happy summer, read everyday.”
Nice sentiment, and mildly ironic in the sense that you had to read the sign in order to get the message to read every day. Unfortunately they had the two words “every” and “day” rendered as one word “everyday.” As any reader who respects the sometimes-tortuous conventions of the English language will tell you, that’s not the waY to do it—especially every day on a sign board on a school.
It’s two words when you are talking about each and every day. You are modifying the word day with the word every. It’s only one word “everyday” when your are using the whole word “everyday” to modify some other word. As in, “it was an ‘everyday’ occurrence.”
You could say, “We would like it to be an everyday occurrence for you to read.” Or, “We would like reading to be an everyday habit.” But when we want you to read every day we want you to understand when you are reading what is a noun and what is an adjective.
Another confusing term is getaway. I once saw a billboard that said, “Hawaii is a great place to getaway.” That’s right, one word, “getaway.”
No. It’s a great place to have a getaway if by getaway you are referring to a thing. Like a giveaway in a radio contest. I won the giveaway and it was a getaway.
If you are getting away then the “away” is what you’re getting. The “get” part is a verb. Like you got a sunburn or are going to get a book.
You don’t say, “Hey this is a great place to getabook. I can read it everyday...”
America, ya gotta love it.