¿Cuál es la diferencia entre cada día y todos los días?

Question

I have been corrected a couple of times for using 'cada día' rather than 'todos los días' to mean everyday, but when I look in my dictionary, it says both of them can mean every day. I know that 'cada día' can also mean each day.

Two examples I found:

Cada día más existe la necesidad de comprobar los cables.

Todos los días revisamos la lista de pasajeros.

Could someone explain please? Thank you.

A bit like "I will give all of you A grades" - and " I will give each of you a grade A" - ian-hill, Aug 19, 2013

Buena pregunta guapita,será dame algo a pensar de cada día. - ray76, Aug 20, 2013

Answer 1

Hello Margherite,

In general you can translate them this way:

Todos los días = Everyday. Cada día = Each day.

I think that, in non-specific contexts, these two are interchangeable most of the times. Cada día treats days individually, one by one. And todos los días refers to them collectively, as a group of days that share certain feature.

Yo desayuno todos los días/cada día la misma cantidad de café. are equivalent.

I personally would use cada día instead of todos los días when my intention is to emphasize regularity, repetition or persistence.

In relation to the first example in your question, It means that every single day there is more necessity than the previous one. So days are treated singly. In this case "todos los días" is not appropriate.

I wish I have more power of expression in English in order to build better examples. Also, I have learnt this naturally and I am not a theacher (who has proven methods and rules).

I can help you with concrete scenarios, If you want. Feel free to ask me concrete examples.

I hope this helps.

It helped. Thanks. - gringojrf, Aug 19, 2013

Thank you, atxeko, very informative. - 0083f5dc, Aug 19, 2013

Muchas gracias atxeko...yes, your explanation has helped. I am going to send you a specific example if that is ok. - 0095ca4c, Aug 19, 2013

Great answer, thanks! - rogspax, Aug 19, 2013

Answer 2

Hi Margherite. I run into this all the time. I use "cada día" and "cada otro día" all the time. Yet I hear almost exclusively from my circle of friends "todos los días".

When I use "cada otro día" the response is often, "un día sí, un día no".

Go figure.

You will be understood with "cada día".

Muchas gracias gringo. Pensé las personas podrián entenderme. - 0095ca4c, Aug 19, 2013

"Cada otro día" no parece un construcción válida, Gringo. ... - -cae-, Aug 20, 2013

Answer 3

Well, what's the difference between each day and every day in English?

I understand that difference, but I've looked in several references that use both to mean every day. Is that correct? Can you use cada día to mean every day per the dictionaries? - 0095ca4c, Aug 19, 2013

I understand it as per what atxeko said! - afowen, Aug 19, 2013

Yes, so do I...atxeko's explanations are outstanding. - 0095ca4c, Aug 19, 2013

Answer 4

Thanks for both the question and answer. It does seem that they´re often interchangeable in common use. Just last weekend I was doing some verb review in Practice Makes Perfect workbook and used the phrase todos los días, where the book ended up indicating cada día. I hadn´t thought on the nuance much, so this is quite helpful.

Thanks

You're welcome re the question. I'm glad it helped. :-) - 0095ca4c, Aug 19, 2013