student asking question

"Throughout the day" and "in a day", what's different between these two? ? Can I use "in a day" instead here?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Both of these phrases are pretty similar, but there are a few differences. "Throughout the day" means that something happened at lots of points during that day. It implies that an action occurred consistently or continuously and was balanced out during that day. It is also more specific as it refers to a specific day with the article "the". "In a day" means that something occurs at any point in an entire day. However, it does not imply that an action is continuous and occurs in a balanced way. "In a day" usually refers to any day in general. So in the context of the video, you could use "in a day" here, however it would sound a little better to use "throughout the day", since an action which is consistent is being described. Ex: How much do you eat throughout the day? Ex: How many hours do you work in a day?

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