Uses of Every
‘Every’ can only function as an adjective/determiner. It is a distributive adjective to be precise.
We generally use it before singular countable nouns (but there are exceptions).
The noun used with every takes a singular verb, and to refer to it we use singular pronoun or singular possessive adjective.
Pattern: Every + Singular Countable noun + Singular verb + Singular pronoun/possessive adjective
Every men has some duties to perform towards his country. (incorrect)
Every man has some duties to perform towards his country. (correct; every – adjective; man – singular countable noun; has – singular verb; his – singular pronoun)
Though in informal writing, we may use plural pronoun/possessive adjective to refer to every + noun.
Every men has some duties to perform towards their country. (speech and informal writing)
Sometimes, we can use plural countable nouns with every, especially when we talk how often something happens.
Pattern 1: every few + plural countable noun
Every few minutes he will pour something into the container. (minutes - plural countable noun)
Pattern 2: every + number + plural countable noun
Pour 2 ml of this chemical in the container every two minutes. (two minutes - plural countable noun)
Various uses of Every
‘Every’ may mean many different things. Let’s see.
Use 1
It may refer to all people/things of a certain type or in a group.
Every house has its own storage unit.
He met every teacher at the school in a single day.
Every detail of our small meetings is still vivid in my memory.
Use 2
We also use ‘every’ to indicate how often something happens or how far apart things are in space or time (especially in case of regular time-intervals or distance between them).
Check your dad’s B.P. every two hours.
There are big potholes every few meters along this road.
Sometimes, we use ‘other’ with ‘every’ for this purpose.
I have to report to the police station every other week.
We can also use ‘every’ to mean ‘sometimes, but not often’. For this purpose, we use it in the following phrases:
every now and again/every now and then/every so often/every once in a while
Every now and then he will do something to put my mood off.
Use 3: Emphasis
We also use ‘every’ for the sake of emphasis. There are various ways we can use ‘every’ for this purpose.
To emphasize that we mean the whole of something, we use every inch/moment/word etc.
Every word that came out of his mouth was like a dagger through my heart.
We often use the phrase ‘every single’ for extra emphasis.
It’s something every single one of us need to keep in mind.
everyone, everything, everybody, everywhere are words that start with ‘every’, but they work as pronouns. They are written as one word, i.e. we should not break them.
Just as you enter senior secondary level, every thing changes. (incorrect)
Just as you enter senior secondary level, everything changes. (correct)
However, we never write ‘everytime’. It is always written as ‘every time’.
You have to do this everytime to make me mad, isn’t it? (incorrect)
You have to do this every time to make me mad, isn’t it? (correct)