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Every

Every is a determiner.

Every meaning ‘each member of a group’​

We use every + singular noun to refer individually to all the members of a complete group of something:

  • There’s a photograph on the wall of every child in the school.
  • Try to answer every question.

When every refers to the subject of the clause, we use a singular verb:

  • Every player wants to be in a winning team.
  • Not: Every player want …
  • Every cook needs good knives and a chopping board.

The negative of every is normally not every:

  • Not every noun has a plural form.

We use singular pronouns and possessives to refer back to every + noun, especially in more formal styles, and especially when what we refer to is not human:

  • Every store has a manager in charge of it*.*
  • Every area has its own park.

In less formal styles, the pronoun or possessive may be plural:

  • Every student gets a laptop. They have to give it back at the end of the course.
  • Every user has their own password.
See also
  • All or every?
  • Each or every?

Every: regular situations​

We use every with a singular noun to refer to something that happens regularly:

  • The festival is held every August in Budapest.
  • I leave the house every morning at 6 am.
  • Not: I leave the house every mornings at 6 am.

We use every with a number and a plural noun to refer to regular intervals of time or numbers:

  • There are buses into town every ten minutes.
  • He now works from home, travelling to Amsterdam every two weeks.

Every day or everyday?​

We write two words when every day means each day. The adjective everyday is one word. It means ‘normal’ or ‘usual’:

  • The boys meet up every day in the park.
  • Not: The boys meet up everyday in the park.
  • In the Soviet Union, poetry was at the centre of everyday life.

Every single​

We often use single with every to emphasise each member of a complete group of people or things:

  • He was the only player who played in every single match last season.
  • I’ve got to photocopy every single page.

Every one or everyone?​

We use every one, written as two words, to refer back to a noun we have already mentioned:

  • I received more than a hundred letters from him while I was away and I’ve kept every one.

Everyone, written as one word, means ‘every person’:

  • Everyone enjoyed themselves.

We use every one of before pronouns and determiners:

  • There are 107 two-letter words in the dictionary and John Catto, an Aberdeen lorry driver, knows every one of them.
  • When Jenkins joined the bank, one of his first acts was to make every one of the bank’s employees reapply for their jobs.
See also
  • Everyone, everybody, everything, everywhere

Every other​

We use every other to mean ‘alternate’:

  • We worked every other Sunday. (One Sunday he worked, the next Sunday he didn’t work, the next Sunday he worked, etc.)
  • He works in Germany every other week. (One week he works in Germany, the next week he doesn’t, the next week he does, etc.)

Every: typical errors​

We don’t use every on its own, without a noun or without one:

  • There were five rooms. Every room was decorated in a different style.
  • Not: Every was decorated in a different style.

We don’t use every with a plural noun:

  • I go swimming every day.
  • Not: I go swimming every days.
See also
  • All or every?