“When“ vs “whenever”

Ronni

The motormouth ;)
Location
Nashville TN
Today's annoyance brought to you by the Grammar Nazi. 😡

It's the misuse of the word "whenever"

If a date is unique, or the date or time is known, use "when." e.g. When I go on vacation, I want to rent a cabana.

For repeated events, or events where the date or time is uncertain, use "whenever." HINT: If you can substitute "every time that..." or "whatever time that..." in your sentence, then the use of "whenever" is correct. e.g. Whenever I get in the shower, the phone rings.

You're welcome. 😉
 

Someone decides what is proper or not. As for me I do what's right for me. People tend to misunderstand each other anyway. Even the rules in writing have relaxed. We all need to mellow out. :)
 

Today's annoyance brought to you by the Grammar Nazi. 😡

It's the misuse of the word "whenever"

If a date is unique, or the date or time is known, use "when." e.g. When I go on vacation, I want to rent a cabana.

For repeated events, or events where the date or time is uncertain, use "whenever." HINT: If you can substitute "every time that..." or "whatever time that..." in your sentence, then the use of "whenever" is correct. e.g. Whenever I get in the shower, the phone rings.

You're welcome. 😉
I like your lesson, though have always struggled with absorbing grammar, need alone retaining it, and I thank the English teacher I had while in Elementary school for that, where she bulldozed through material as if everyone was on her level, and for those like myself, we were left lost and confused.

Adjectives, modifiers, modify nouns, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, modify verbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, the whole thing just turned me completely off, and even after all these years, my anger and frustration still brews over such.

Do think that grammar is one of those things where you either have the knack to learn the jest of it, or you don't, and nothing IMO could be anymore complicated or convoluted than grammar.
 
Grammar and spelling observations show the level of education someone has received if they were lucky enough to make it through university especially if you are going into politics.

Or if you are interested enough to enhance your education by reading.
This is actually an interesting point. Back in Australia when I was in school there was no extra attention paid to the English language. I’d say the focus on it was mediocre at best.

Also back then, you could get on a fast track if you weren’t planning to go to university (college) and fully graduate high school at 16. Given that choice, plus incidentally when my birthday was in relation to the school year, I actually graduated at 15.

I had no interest in higher education, I just wanted to experience life. And I did! By the time I was 20 I’d lived on 3 continents , travelled, had all kinds of unique and fun experiences.

The one thing, the ONLY thing that contributes to my grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary is reading. I read voraciously, with liberal use of a dictionary when I come upon a word I don’t know. I don’t know the name of every part of speech, and I can’t always tell you WHY a sentence construct is incorrect, just THAT it is.

I think that my love of the English language and my frustration when it isn’t used correctly (it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me 😖) is just something I was born with, certainly nothing I pursued or learned as a result of a higher education.
 
This is actually an interesting point. Back in Australia when I was in school there was no extra attention paid to the English language. I’d say the focus on it was mediocre at best.

Also back then, you could get on a fast track if you weren’t planning to go to university (college) and fully graduate high school at 16. Given that choice, plus incidentally when my birthday was in relation to the school year, I actually graduated at 15.

I had no interest in higher education, I just wanted to experience life. And I did! By the time I was 20 I’d lived on 3 continents , travelled, had all kinds of unique and fun experiences.

The one thing, the ONLY thing that contributes to my grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary is reading. I read voraciously, with liberal use of a dictionary when I come upon a word I don’t know. I don’t know the name of every part of speech, and I can’t always tell you WHY a sentence construct is incorrect, just THAT it is.

I think that my love of the English language and my frustration when it isn’t used correctly (it’s like nails on a chalkboard to me 😖) is just something I was born with, certainly nothing I pursued or learned as a result of a higher education.
I'm the same way. My son worked part time as a volunteer at a cable outlet. They had a community bulletin board that would post notices on television. The spelling was atrocious.
I told my son about it and his comment was "What difference does it make?". I told him that it makes you look stupid.
And guess what? He immediately took up the challenge and I would hear him phoning to get a message corrected.
Yes it does grate on me as well.
 
And then there were rules.

'i' before e, except after c

But there are exceptions. How about "weird"?
Finish it:
I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, as in neighbor and weigh. (credit where credit is due, thank phonics for this PSA)

Which still doesn't explain them all. 'Weird', eh?

There are a few that bug me but I let them be. They're, There, and Their. Come on, this is elementary.

"They're taking their picnic over there." 'They're': A contraction of 'They are'. Their: Possessive, it belongs to them. There: A location.

Another is should of. It's not 'Should of', it's 'Should've', a contraction of 'should have'. "I should have done that sooner."
 
Last edited:
Finish it:
I before E, except after C, or when sounded as A, as in neighbor and weigh. (credit where credit is due, thank phonics for this PSA)

Which still doesn't explain them all. 'Weird', eh?

There are a few that bug me but I let them be. They're, There, and Their. Come on, this is elementary.

"They're taking their picnic over there." 'They're': A contraction of 'They are'. Their: Possessive, it belongs to them. There: A location.

Another is should of. It's not 'Should of', it's 'Should've', a contraction of 'should have'. "I should have done that sooner."
Gee I give up. I knew how to spell neighbour (Br and Can.) from the word neigh as in horse.

weigh wouldn't be pronounced as weigh it it was spelled wiegh. That would be prounonced as weeg or weef.

When I get confused I type the whole thing out like they are instead of they're. cripes your only saving two strokes.
 

Back
Top