I noticed a sign in a parking lot that read,
“No truck parking anytime.”
I don’t know why but it looked wrong to me. If I were in charge of sign-making, I would have split the “any” and the “time” but I couldn’t cite a grammatical rule. I thought more than I care to admit, and decided that sometimes you have to have two words (e.g., Do you have any time?) and sometimes it seemed OK to use the compound form (e.g. You can call me anytime.)
But I could not explain why my parking sign begged for the two-word variety.
Fortunately, I have a book titled, “Common Errors in English Usage” that is wonderful. Actually, I first used the web site a few years ago but it was so great I bought the book. On the topic “any time” it reads,
Though it is often compressed into a single word by analogy with “anywhere” and similar words, “any time” is traditionally a two-word phrase.
So I was right about the sign, wrong about accepted usage, traditionally speaking.
4 comments:
Thanks for the lesson. So many times when I'm chatting I wonder if what I type should be one or two words. Now I know. Although I'll probably forget and have to come back to your blog and remind myself which is correct.
This is one of those that I second guess every time I write..to compound or not to compound? People compound 'alot' and it is not a word. It drives me bonkers.
The sign maker could have omitted the superfluous word.
Good point. I didn't think of that.
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