cada día or cada el día?

Question

How do they say to give the "everyday/each day" meaning? Which one is correct?

-Vienen cada el día al café. -Vienen cada día al café.

Answer 1

"Cada" and "el" are both determiners (or determinativos) in Spanish grammar. Just as in English grammar, there are severe restrictions on using determiners, especially in combination. In this particular case, the only determiners that can precede articles (or articulos) like "el" are the various forms of todo, while "cada" (a determinativo distributivo) must come directly before the noun, so "cada el" is incorrect on both counts.

Consider the following in English:
Every day of my life (correct)
All the days of my life (correct)
Every the day of my life (wrong)

I would say more about determiners in Spanish grammar, but the description in Gramática didática del español is 45 pages long.

Goood explanation! - EL_MAG0, Jan 20, 2012

It sure is!! - territurtle, Jan 20, 2012

Answer 2

But you can say "todos los días".

I tend to think of "cada día" as "each day".

And "todos los días" as "every day". And not "everyday" - that has a different meaning, at least in English.

I kind of think it that way too. :) - EL_MAG0, Jan 20, 2012

Answer 3

Vienen cada día al café

Close in meaning...Vienen todos los días al café. - 0074b507, Jan 20, 2012

Tienes razón :) Muy parecido y más utilizado. - Cordobesa, Jan 20, 2012

Answer 4

cada dia

Answer 5

thank you!! any case when we use cada el día? Is it completely wrong and unused?

I haven't heard it used :S - dewclaw, Jan 20, 2012

Yes, it's wrong. - Cordobesa, Jan 20, 2012