"Nowadays" was spelled like "now a days" and "now adays" in Middle English, but now it's spelled like . . .
Eric from Hawaii wrote, "It is common for students to omit the middle 'a' in 'nowadays' or 'now a days'. Is 'now days' an error? And for that matter, is it 'nowadays' or 'now a days'?"
The correct word is "nowadays." "Nowdays" and "now a days" are errors (although the correct "nowadays" comes from a Middle English phrase that was written as two or three words.)
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About the Author
Mignon Fogarty is the founder of the Quick and Dirty Tips network and creator of Grammar Girl, which has been named one of Writer's Digest's 101 best websites for writers multiple times. The Grammar Girl podcast has also won Best Education Podcast multiple times in the Podcast Awards, and Mignon is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame. Mignon is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing" and six other books on writing. She has appeared as a guest on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" and the "Today Show" and has been featured in the New York Times, Business Week, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN.com, and more. She was previously the chair of media entrepreneurship in the Reynolds School of Journalism in Reno, NV. She hates the phrase "grammar nazi" and loves the word "kerfuffle." She has a B.A. in English from the University of Washington in Seattle and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University. Mignon believes that learning is fun, and the vast rules of grammar are wonderful fodder for lifelong study.
