Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm gonna guess that each of you listening to this
podcast is interested in improving your English. I think about
that every time I write up one of these lessons,
and I'm sure that today every one of you is
going to like this lesson about each and every.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
All right, thank you, John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight thirty eight.
Each or every Hello, and welcome, thanks for joining me
(00:53):
for another episode of the Happy English Podcast. I'm your
English teacher, Michael, and I'm so glad you're here with
me today. I want to talk about two little words
that give English learners a hard time each and every Now.
On the surface, they seem kind of similar, right, I
(01:15):
mean if I say each day I walk the dogs
or every day I walk the dogs. Yeah, same idea, right,
I walk the dogs daily. Both of those are totally
natural and totally correct. You can pretty much use either
one when you're talking about time expressions, like each morning,
(01:37):
every Friday, each weekend, every summer, and so on. But
and you knew there was a butt coming. There are
some small but important differences, and that's what we're going
to unpack today. So first of all, what's the difference
between each and every, Well, it depends on the point
(01:59):
of view you. What I mean is each looks at
things one by one, and every looks at things as
a group. Let me give you an example. Imagine you
were handing out cookies at a party and you say
each child got a cookie. That means you're thinking about
(02:20):
the kids individually. You're mentally going, Okay, Bobby got one,
Emma got one, Heroshi got one, and so on. But
if you say every child got a cookie, you're looking
at the group as a whole, as in, nobody got
left out. So there's the same outcome. Everyone gets a cookie,
(02:41):
but the focus is a little bit different. I remember
a TV commercial for watches. The announcer said that each
watch is hand crafted each watch, using each gives the
feeling that, one by one, those watches are given individual treatment,
(03:01):
and individual treatment feels special. Right. Here's another example. My
dad had an extensive collection of jazz records, and each
record had a note card inside with his handwritten notes
about the music. And the musicians each record one by one.
We can really feel that each time he got a
(03:23):
new record, he wrote those notes about each one one
by one. Again, using each makes us feel the individuality
of those records. Whereas every record has a handwritten note,
every record means all of the records, we lump them
together and we lose their individual character. Again, both each
(03:49):
and every are correct, but each sounds a little more personal,
more zoomed in. All right, now, let's talk about grammar
for a bit, because this can be problematic for a
lot of English learners. First of all, we use every
followed by a singular noun. You can say things like
every day, every cat, every game, and every employee, like
(04:15):
every employee goes through three months of training. The Yankees
have won every game this month. As well, we use
each followed by a singular noun. You can say things
like each day, each cat, each game, each employee, like
(04:35):
each employee goes through three months of training. The Yankees
have won each game this month. In addition, we use
each of followed by a determiner and then a plural noun.
Each of my friends has a car. Each of the
employees goes through three months of training. So you may
(04:58):
be wondering what's the difference between each and each of. Well,
aside from the grammar, it comes down to emphasis. Each
is simple, direct, and slightly more general in tone. It's
often used when you're referring to a category or a role,
like each student gets a handbook, each cat has its
(05:19):
own personality. On the other hand, when you use each of,
you're focusing more on a specific group and pointing out
the individual members within that group. Each of feels slightly
more formal or specific. You're zooming in on a known
(05:39):
or defined set, like each of the students in this
class has a laptop, each of my cats hates going
to the vet. When we use each of, we know
the specific group, like each of the students in this
class or each of my cats. Here's an example from
(06:00):
an office setting. Imagine you're a manager talking about your team.
In an email. You might write, each employee is expected
to complete the survey. This refers to all employees a
general statement. But when you say something like each of
the employees in our team has completed the training, now
(06:21):
you're talking about a specific group. Now here's a common
phrase that you might hear. Each and every we use
each and every to give emphasis, like each and every
student must attend ninety percent of the lectures, or the
boss might say, I expect each and every one of
(06:42):
you to do your best to meet the deadline. So
in the real world, which should you use? Let me
give it to you straight. Every is what people say
most often. Every time I go to that restaurant, it's crowded.
I go for a walk every day. If you're talking
(07:03):
about daily routines and what you usually do, every is
the go to word. I think it rolls off the
tongue more naturally I go for a walk each day. Well,
it's still correct, but it has a slightly more formal
or poetic field. It can sound a little, i don't know,
(07:24):
extra serious, like I go there every day, natural normal,
I go there each day. It's correct, but it sounds
like you're trying to make a point or sound thoughtful.
So unless you're writing a poem or trying to be dramatic,
stick with every day for the everyday stuff. You see
(07:47):
what I did there? All right, that's it for today.
I hope this helped clear up things for each and
every one of you. Keep in mind the best way
to remember English like this and any other word or
phrase in English is to take that word or phrase,
write it in a sentence that's true for you or
(08:09):
true in your world, and then memorize your sentences. Hey,
do you want to get more practice using your English,
then you should join my podcast Learner's study group. There
you can make new international friends join us for live
group lessons every week where we practice these podcast lessons together.
(08:29):
Plus you get access to the pdf, transcript and audio
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just visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast lesson
(08:53):
eight thirty eight. Remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
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