“I can go to school at any time.” Because any time is a combination of an adjective and a noun, at is the preposition used to modify time. Let’s apply this to any time and anytime. If you chose to use an adverb in this sentence, it would have been placed before “sat.” (e.g., I quietly sat on the brown log.) The preposition “on” tells the reader the location where the speaker sat. Consider, “I sat on the brown log.” The specific log that is described is brown. The key is remembering that a preposition is used to modify a noun by either placing it immediately next to the person, place, or thing or near the adjectives used to describe it. Review: prepositions are words that come before nouns to describe a location in relation to another noun (e.g., to, in, at, on, with, from). A hard and fast rule of adverbs is that you can’t use a preposition in front of them. What words are you using around it? The correct usage of anytime or any time depends on the words you choose to use around it. Using the same sentence from above, a speaker might say, “I can stop playing video games any time I want.” This type of phrasing could allude to them saying any of the times they choose to play video games could be their last when they want it to be. You can ask the question, “Which time?” to which the answer would be, “Any.” While any is a vague adjective, it’s an adjective nonetheless. Any is an adjective because it describes time. Let’s break this down so it makes more sense. In contrast, “any time” is two words and functions as an adjective and a noun together. An example of this is saying, “I can stop playing video games anytime I want.” The speaker is saying they can stop playing video games whenever they choose. “Anytime” is an adverb that means “whenever” or “at any time” and modifies a verb by describing when you can perform it. Here’s a short review of adverbs: an adverb is a word or phrase that modifies an adjective, verb, or another adverb. Nouns, verbs, and adjectives are relatively basic parts of speech, but it can all get a little more confusing when we start talking about adverbs, prepositions, and others. Verbs show actions, nouns show who or what is committing the action, and adjectives describe the noun committing the action. Sentences are made up of various parts of speech that each play a role in conveying your message. So, why bother? If you want to stop here and keep life simple-great! But if you’re curious about when it’s okay to use the one-word version and why, read on. Sure, you can use the one-word version, anytime, correctly in some cases-but it comes with more rules. It’s appropriate for both formal and informal writing and grammatically fits every scenario. That’s because any time is always an acceptable spelling in every situation. Is there a right and wrong answer? Yes, but if you want to keep this very simple, just always use the two-word version: any time. Elevate your writing with real-time, intelligent assistance Learn More
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