Anytime vs. Any Time

Do You Have Any Time to Do Anything in Your Everyday Life?

A common complaint of many in this busy world! We’re not here to talk about how busy everyday life is though – we’re here to talk about words. So, why can’t you say:

Do You Have Anytime in Your Every Day life to Do Any Thing?

See the difference? Let’s look at how a single space (or lack of it!) between two words can make them grammatically incorrect.

Everyday vs. Every Day

Starting with the easiest pair:

	Information	Examples
Everyday	adjective means ‘ordinary’ or ‘typical’	Losing his key is an everyday occurrence for Barry. My everyday tasks take up 80% of my time.
Every day	means ‘each day’	It rained every day in February. On holiday, we went to the beach every day.

Anytime vs. Any Time

A little trickier:

	Information	Examples
Anytime	adverb means ‘at any point in time’ or ‘whenever’	You can have lunch anytime you like. Call me anytime.
Any tiime	used with a preposition used to talk about an amount of time	You can have lunch at any time. Call me at any time. Do you have any time to talk to me today?

Anything vs. Any Thing

This might make you scratch your head a little:

	Information	Example
Anything	pronoun means ‘a thing of any kind’ usually used with negatives and in questions	You’ll never learn anything new if you don’t try. Can I get you anything from the bar?
Any thing	used to emphasise you are talking about an object (not a person or animal). Often said as ‘any one thing’. used when an adjective modifies the ‘thing’ used when ‘thing’ is plural	If any (one) thing is difficult, it is learning a language! Any little thing can make her stressed. Any things that are old can be thrown away.