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johncanada24 · Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 119 Location: Canada

I was talking to a Korean guy the other day and he asked me a very difficult question. His question was:

What is the difference between "Whenever" and "Everytime" ?

For example:

Whenever I arrive at home, I eat sushi.
Everytime I arrive at home, I eat sushi.

I wasn't able to answer his question but these 2 words seem to share the same meaning. My guess is ( and I hope I'm right ) that:

Whenever does not have reference to a specific time but only when the event transpires, which could be ANYTIME.

Everytime is more related to the arrival of the time to which the event transpires.

Does anybody have anything solid on this ? Or is it debateable?

Thanks in advance!

coffeedrinker · Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 149

I don't think the difference is terribly important but I'd add this:

whenever, as you said, has the meaning of "at any time", so you could say the same sentence as "It doesn't matter what time I arrive home, I eat sushi then." Meaning, it could be at an appropriate time like lunchtime or it could be 2am

every time to me implies "always", so you could say "I always have suchi upon my arrival - a day doesn't go by where I arrive home and I don't have sushi. I always have it."

The first sentence also implies that you always have sushi, but the focus is more on the fact that it doesn't matter what time it is.

This might be a case though of coming up with examples that we might not actually say. I don't know if I would say either sentence (I think I'd say "as soon as I get home I have..." or "I always have...when I get home").

johncanada24 · Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 119 Location: Canada

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 4:33 pm Post subject:

John, may a suggest something.

Students will often ask questions that are difficult to answer as few English speakers have analysed the language that we use on a daily basis.

When confronted by any of these questions then if you don't have a clear answer ready then tell your students that they have asked a good question and it is difficult to explain. Tell them that you will have the answer for them next lesson.

Then research it. A good book to use here is Michael Swan's "Practical English Usage".

The worst thing to do is to attempt an explantation when you are not clear on the use or meaning as you can find yourself telling students things that are not true. If you get found out then you risk your credibility.

johncanada24 · Joined: 19 Oct 2006 Posts: 119 Location: Canada

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2006 5:15 pm Post subject:

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

I have that as well, but it doesn't answer everything. I cross reference with two other books (one is Azure's, the other I can't remember at the moment) I have, but I also follow Ali's advice in referring difficult questions for later. If the questions come up during regular class time, you may also spend some time looking at more examples as a class and ask students to see if they can figure out the rules themselves. Good way to look briefly at the example and may serve to answer the question sooner than later in some cases.

going_places · Joined: 01 Mar 2006 Posts: 30

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

What we need is to look at the example where they are different:
Whenever I go back to my home town I eat sushi.
Every time I go back to my home town I eat sushi.
have exactly the same meaning.
However
Come and see me whenever you want.
is the same as
Come and see me anytime you want.
not
*Come and see me every time you want.

So 'whenever' has the meaning of both 'anytime' and 'every time' (though as far as form goes there are many places where we can use the latter two and not 'whenever':
"When shall I phone you?"
"Anytime"
*"Whenever"

"As soon as he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it -- every time"
*"As soon as he opens his mouth he puts his foot in it --- whenever."

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

First of all, every time is a set of two words, not one word ("everytime").

Second, the word whenever has two uses, one as a relative pronoun (meaning any time that...) and one as a word synonymous with "every time", in which it suggests repetition.

Example: "any time"
Whenever you want to come over is all right with me.

Example: synonym to every time
Whenever I hear that song, it reminds me of my old girlfriend.

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:13 am Post subject:

Sheikh Inal Ovar · Joined: 04 Dec 2005 Posts: 1208 Location: Melo Drama School

Considering PT's self-debasing signature, it's surprising she feels the need to correct others when they are not wrong ...

Perpetual Traveller · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 651 Location: In the Kak, Japan

Considering Sheikh Inal Ovar's propensity to attack without justification it's surprising he hasn't been banned.

What the hell did I do to you to deserve that? If you will notice my phrasing I did not say that it was totally wrong, just that in my opinion it was an incorrect use of the word. I hadn't thought of using the sentence in the way furiousmilksheikali suggested so sue me. Is it a crime now to offer an opinion on these threads?

I'm also curious to know why you consider my signature to be self-debasing and how it has any bearing on my right to contribute to these threads.

Go bury your head and think about glass houses.

PT

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:32 pm Post subject: