毎日

Usage

毎日 (まいにち) is ‘every day’: the prefix 毎 ‘each’ plus 日 ‘day’. It works as an adverb with no に (毎日勉強します), as a topic with は (毎日は行きません, which turns contrastive) and with の before a noun (毎日の生活 ‘daily life’). The verb is the plain non-past ます form, which expresses habits as well as the future.

The same prefix builds the whole family, and the second element shifts reading: 毎朝 まいあさ, 毎晩 まいばん, 毎週 まいしゅう, 毎月 まいつき (also まいげつ), 毎年 まいとし (also まいねん), 毎回 まいかい ‘every time’. On the frequency scale 毎日 sits alongside いつも ‘always’, above よく ‘often’, 時々 ‘sometimes’ and あまり…ない ‘not much’.

Examples

• 毎日日本語を勉強します。（まいにち にほんご を べんきょう します）— I study Japanese every day.
• 毎日七時に起きます。（まいにち しちじ に おきます）— I get up at seven every day.
• 父は毎日新聞を読みます。（ちち は まいにち しんぶん を よみます）— My father reads the newspaper every day.
• 毎日は行きませんが、時々行きます。（まいにち は いきません が ときどき いきます）— I don’t go every day, but I go sometimes.

Traps for Spanish, English and French speakers

• ‘Todos los días’ and ‘tous les jours’ are plural phrases; Japanese has no plural, so 毎日 is one word with no たち, no 全部 and no counter. ‘Cada día’ is still 毎日, not ×各日.
• Habits take the plain non-past 毎日行きます, the same form that means ‘will go’. Do not force a progressive: 毎日勉強しています is fine for ‘these days I am studying daily’, but the neutral habit is 毎日勉強します. With は, 毎日は行きません means ‘I don’t go every day’ (some days yes), not ‘I never go’.
• Reading the unit: 毎日 is まいにち, never ×まいひ; 毎月 is まいつき, unlike 来月 らいげつ; 毎年 is まいとし. The compound decides the reading, not the character.