There is a song by The Dave Mathews Band called “The Space Between.” And in the song Dave Mathews talks about how spaces between things are very important. Today, we will find out that the spaces between words can be really important too.

First, let's look at a very small word, that I made a mistake with recently:

awhile (or is it “a while?”)

I saw a sentence “He was gone for a while.” and it looked strange. Isn't it “awhile”? I did some quick research. I found out that before a preposition (e.g. for, in, on, at) awhile is actually “a while.” But, if there are no prepositions before it, it becomes “awhile.” e.g. He stayed awhile.

Does anyone else make this mistake?

Let's look at another very common word:

anytime

I thought that this word was always spelled as one word:

You can come over anytime.

But, this is not true. It can actually be spelled as two words:

You can come over any time.

I also went to one of my favorite sites to check the spelling: googlebattle.com. And, “any time” as two words is actually more popular in search results than anytime (one word). You can check the most recent battle results here.

Finally, let's look at a word that people commonly make mistakes with:

everyday (or is it “every day”?)

Take a look at two sentences:

I wear a T-shirt every day.

I am wearing an everyday T-shirt.

Can you see the difference? “Everyday” is an adjective, but “every day” is an adverb (i.e. it describes the verb – wear)

Here are some more examples:

I go to the gym every day.

I brush my teeth every day.

I have an everyday car; it's very old.

He wore everyday clothes to the interview.

These are some examples of incorrect sentences:

I drive to work everyday.

He used an every day cloth to cover the table.

What do you think? How do you write anytime or everyday? One word or Two? Let me know in the comments.

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