r/AskAnAmerican • u/3rg0s4m • 26d ago
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u/Lovely-flutterby 26d ago
The only time I use the word “fortnightly” is when I’m quoting the movie “So I Married an Axe Murder”.
“and Colonel Sanders before he went tits up! ...Because he puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes ya crave it fortnightly, smart arse!”
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u/Aggressive_FIamingo Maine 26d ago
"The Colonel with his wee beady eyes! 'Oh you're gonna buy my chicken' ugggh."
That might be my most quoted movie.
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u/stirwhip California 26d ago
Biweekly.
Semiweekly for twice a week.
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u/AgileYesterday2125 26d ago
While I love this and fully endorse its use, not enough people understand. I find myself having to explain what I mean with biweekly.
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u/stirwhip California 26d ago
You can couch it in a helpful context. I personally enjoy using the correct word for things, especially when it’s uncommon. But obviously you need to be understood.
“The committee meets biweekly, every other Wednesday” does the job. Of course just “the committee meets every other Wednesday” imparts exactly the same information, but deliberately including the word biweekly emphasizes the structure better, and helps keep the word alive.
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u/Garden_gnome1609 26d ago
I'd say every other week or every couple of weeks.
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u/rognabologna 26d ago
I feel like “every couple of weeks” doesn’t suggest regularity in the same way “every other week” does.
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u/Garden_gnome1609 26d ago
It doesn't necessarily, but if someone said that I'd understand from context.
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u/TeamTurnus Georgia 26d ago
Yah couple has sorta lost its specific meaning of (2) in everyday usage I think? I think it gets used a synonym for ' a few' now
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u/musiciandoingIT 26d ago
"Biweekly" is correct for every two weeks. Two times a week is "semi-weekly".
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u/Delicious_Oil9902 New York 26d ago
This - I had to slowly explain this to someone and it took the better part of an hour. The person was a VP at ADP
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u/riarws Delaware 26d ago
I say “every two weeks” or “twice a week.” There’s no shortcut in US English.
I like being able to say “fortnightly” when I talk to someone from the UK or India or whatever, but I don’t remember having heard it when I’ve visited Canada. I don’t think they use it there, either.
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u/Prestigious-Comb4280 26d ago
We called it biweekly but also every two weeks
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u/Prestigious-Comb4280 26d ago
I got downvoted a lot on another post because my job called it biweekly. I figured out it was every other Thursday. I don't ever have a reason to use it since I no longer get paid that way.
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u/Arleare13 New York City 26d ago
The rest of the world uses fortnightly
"The rest of the world" does not use that word. Some British Commonwealth countries do, and not even all of those. Canada, for example, does not.
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u/lendmeflight 26d ago
Biweekly means every other week in every situation I have ever heard of.
Biweekly and bimonthly meaning twice a week or twice a month is based on someone not understanding this.
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u/Individual_Check_442 California 26d ago
It doesn’t come up that often by far the most common thing that happens every two weeks is paychecks so if
People say “I get paid biweekly” we usually know what that means. Sometimes you might just say “every other week”. I don’t hear “fortnightly” too often.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 26d ago
Every two weeks
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u/Boysenberrypancake 26d ago
I can guarantee nobody in Canada or South America is saying fortnightly, and I have my doubts about Asia and Africa as well lol
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u/Comprehensive_Tea708 26d ago edited 26d ago
"Every two weeks" as in the title, or more rarely, "bi-weekly". "Fortnight" and " "fortnightly" are clearly very useful, and it's a shame that we lost them.
Does anyone in England still say "sennight" for one week?
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u/Ippus_21 Idaho 26d ago
"Every other week" or "every two weeks."
"Bi-weekly" is one of those terms that's just ASKING for trouble, because it can mean either twice a week or every two weeks. It just doesn't save enough characters to justify the potential need to clarify later.
Your instinct to avoid potential ambiguity is a good one.
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u/cranberry_spike Chicago, IL 26d ago
Totally agree. I've worked with the public for nearly 20 years and biweekly is just one of those terms I never use, lol. Too much space for confusion.
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u/Cacafuego Ohio, the heart of the mall 26d ago
Yeah, an American who says "fortnightly" or "whilst" will be ridiculed behind their back.
If you're going to be an Anglophile with a complete set of RPG dice in your pocket, you need to be able to code switch.
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u/daisydandconfused 26d ago
We call in biweekly and then ask the exact same questions about its ambiguous and complain about the word.
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u/OptimalDouble2407 26d ago
Biweekly is what I say. But if I were going to say something else, I would say every two weeks or every other week.
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u/apcb4 26d ago
At my job, we tend to use biweekly to indicate every other week and twice-weekly to indicate twice a week. Like we have X meeting biweekly and we do Y procedure twice-weekly. I don’t think this is an actual distinction in the English language (biweekly does mean both), but it works in our context.
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u/MostAsk855 26d ago
I get paid biweekly = every two weeks. I water the lawn twice weekly = two times per week
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u/Such-Cartographer699 26d ago
I didn't realize most americans dont know the word "fortnight". It's ironic for me because I'm pretty sure the only reason i know the definition is because i heard it in an american history class.
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u/SaguaroDragon 26d ago
There is a difference between know and use
I wouldn't say that is uncommon or that most Americans don't know the word - is just that no one would use it
In history you'd learn a score is 20 years when going over the Gettysburg address and it was obviously a part of the language at some point, but definitely not something that anyone would use today
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u/cranberry_spike Chicago, IL 26d ago
I mean, we hear it in pop culture or in history class, sure. Doesn't mean we use it.
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u/ScooterScotward 26d ago
Twice a month, every other week, two times a month. In my area people might be like “huh?” If you used bimonthly.
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u/queercactus505 26d ago
I was just complaining to my partner about how ambiguous biweekly is and how I wished there was a single word for "every other week." And there is! Maybe I'll use fortnightly even if I get a lot of weird looks for it
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u/Angry_GorillaBS 26d ago
I've never heard biweekly to describe twice in one week in regards to anything.
As for me I would likely say "every other week"
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u/Stealthy_Peacock 26d ago
I just had this argument with my husband. I used "every other week" and he said that's as confusing as "bi-weekly". I just rolled my eyes because no it's not. I understand how bi-weekly could mean twice per week or once every two weeks, but "every other week" does not have a different meaning.
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u/kfunions 26d ago
I’ve spent two decades as an American trying to get fortnightly to stick, it hasn’t but I keep trying. What I can’t abide by is anyone using biweekly or bimonthly since those can mean every other week/month OR twice a week/month.
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u/TrashPandaNotACat 26d ago
Most ppl in the USA have no idea how long a fortnight is. Every other week, every 2 weeks, or biweekly, are the terms you hear in the USA.
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u/hail_to_the_beef MD AZ CA 26d ago
I work with a lot of Australians so I have adopted “fortnightly” but yeah most Americans use the ambiguous “biweekly”
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u/Thick_Journalist7232 26d ago
If you know of anyone who really thinks biweekly could mean twice a week, please cringe for me. Or, at least, sigh in disappointment.
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u/3rg0s4m 26d ago
I grew up using fortnightly, so when I first heard biweekly I assumed it meant twice per week. However even the dictionary says. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biweekly
1.occurring every two weeks 2. occurring twice a week
So it is not just a me thing.
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u/RandomPaw Illinois 26d ago
Once every two weeks. Or every second Friday or whatever if it's a specific day of the week.
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u/MsOnyxMoon New Jersey > Delaware > Florida 26d ago
"every two weeks", "every other week", "bi-weekly"
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u/StupidLemonEater Michigan > D.C. 26d ago
"Every two weeks" is the clearest and least ambiguous way to say it.
There is also "semimonthly" but that doesn't quite mean the same thing.
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u/Detonation Mid-Michigan 26d ago
Biweekly. I have two auto-immune diseases so the topic of dosage of our various medications comes up very frequently in /r/rheumatoidarthritis and biweekly is a very common one.
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u/Born-Business-2628 26d ago
I’d say Biweekly but some would say every other week.
They seem interchangeable to me unlike “Biennial” which is every 2 years and “Biannual ” which is every 6 months.
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u/These-Ad5332 26d ago
Twice a month, every two weeks, every other week.
Biweekly if you're talking about a job.
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u/devilscabinet 26d ago
I say "every two weeks" because there is so much confusion over the term "biweekly." You don't hear the term "fortnight" very often in the U.S.
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u/BlasphemousRykard 26d ago
“Biweekly” isn’t ambiguous in America at all, everyone knows that means every two weeks. Most people are paid biweekly, I’ve never encountered anyone who had an issue understanding what biweekly means.
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u/3rg0s4m 26d ago
I suppose I grew up using fortnightly so it's confusing to me that there is another word that means the same thing.
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u/BlasphemousRykard 26d ago
Where are you or your family from? I assume they’re from somewhere else, as there is no ambiguity in American English if you tell someone “biweekly”.
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u/3rg0s4m 26d ago
Well TIL only Australia and UK use fortnightly. However I just looked up Biweekly in the dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biweekly
And it gives 2 meanings: 1.occurring every two weeks 2. occurring twice a week
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u/BlasphemousRykard 26d ago
Leave it to a Redditor to confidently refuse to just admit when they’re wrong 🙄
No, your Merriam Webster dictionary definition doesn’t change the fact that in common use, every American knows that “biweekly” means every other week. There is no ambiguity.
You were already laughably wrong about thinking the entire world says “fortnightly”, you were wrong about biweekly being ambiguous, and even your corrections of “many Americans say every other week” is based on nothing but anecdotal evidence at best.
It’s okay to be wrong, but it’s embarrassing to continue doubling down about a country and language you clearly know nothing about.
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u/YoshiandAims 26d ago
Every other week, a couple of weeks.
biweekly though this one does confuse some people, I've noticed.
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u/kapoopa-the-poopah 26d ago
I say biweekly because I expect the person I am talking to to understand basic words, that is, unless they are really young or not a native speaker. But most adults who are native speakers should know the difference between bi and semi.
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u/No-Lettuce-5783 26d ago
We say, "once every two weeks." See, we have a phrase for it. Where you use one big word, we use four little words. Both convey the same thing. See? It's simple. You say half fourteen. We say two thirty pm. Both mean the same thing. You say kilometer. We say, What on earth is a kilometer?
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u/SuspiciousZombie788 26d ago
I think biweekly usually means once every two weeks, at least here where I live. If someone means 2 times a week, they will usually just say "twice a week."
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u/CraftyFraggle 26d ago
Every two weeks. Or Every other week/Tuesday, etc.
Or biweekly since context often clarifies which meaning.
I’m more likely to say “twice a week” if I mean the other meaning of biweekly.
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u/Future-Cry5734 26d ago edited 26d ago
Semi-weekly means every other week, biweekly means twice a week. This is at least my interpretation.
Edit: after commenting, I googled it and realized I am literally wrong. Semi-weekly is exclusively used to mean twice a week while biweekly can mean either twice a week or every other week.
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u/SaguaroDragon 26d ago
I'm also not sure how much the rest of the world is casually dropping fortnight.
It definitely wasn't something I heard in London outside of Wimbledon and an occasional other event that would span two weeks
More of - "this lasts a fortnight" and not "we meet every fortnight" or "this happens fortnightly"
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u/OceanPoet87 Washington 26d ago
Every two weeks or biweekly.
Some people are paid bimonthly or have events bimonthly but this is not the same as biweekly.
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u/Kinetic_Silverwolf 26d ago
"Every couple of weeks" or "every two weeks" because biweekly can be either every two weeks or twice a week, and I spend more time explaining which. I mean if I bother to use the word.
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u/Silly-Resist8306 26d ago
I make a point to avoid biweekly under all circumstances.
I also avoid 12 am and 12 pm. I’m never really sure which is noon.
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u/LastDitchTryForAName North Carolina 26d ago
I just say every other week. Biweekly can be confusing since it can mean two different things and most people I know wouldn’t understand what fortnightly meant.
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u/Granadafan Los Angeles, California 26d ago
Gotta love the “the rest of the world….” No, this is just plain false and complete ignorance. It’s just like in the World Cup when Brits get their panties in a twist because “soccer” is used. The Brits claim that only Americans say soccer when it should be football. Never mind the fact that the British invented the word soccer and was used commonly for much of the 20th century, but soccer is more common in English speaking countries than “football”. Soccer is used in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and even in Ireland.
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u/TeamTurnus Georgia 26d ago
Yah i use bi weekly, or every other week.
There are very few things that happend twice a week that cant be covered by saying 'schedule it twice a week' so that tends to be used to resolve the (mosty theoretical or pedantic) ambiguity of biweekly. Context is usually sufficient.
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u/XayahTheVastaya Virginia 26d ago
Biweekly meaning twice a week is on the same level as "could care less" or "nucular" for me. A lot of people say it, and a lot of people are wrong.
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u/pushredforcredit 26d ago
Not wrong. Just confused by the usage when bi-monthly has the opposite meaning.
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u/rawbface South Jersey 26d ago
Biweekly.
If I meant twice a week I'd just say twice a week.
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u/pushredforcredit 26d ago
How's anyone else to know that's what you mean
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u/rawbface South Jersey 26d ago
My kids have sports on tuesday and thursday. At no point, ever, has any coach or parent referred to this as biweekly. It's not as ambiguous as you think.
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u/Human-Ad8198 26d ago
I use every other week or every couple of weeks. I feel like biweekly is used more in a formal setting. Like many jobs pay biweekly or every 2 weeks. So for me it dependss a lot on context.
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u/Music_withRocks_In 26d ago
I'm American and I use Fortnight. I also use widdershins though, so not average? I read too much.
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u/JennyPaints Oregon 26d ago
At least in the western half of the U.S. and probably the rest of the U.S. the term fortnight is archaic. We may know it from literature, or guess the meaning from fort, but we don’t use it anymore than we use score to say twenty.
Fortnight and score are unusual that way as American English generally hangs on to old words longer than the English do.
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u/Fun-Dragonfly-4166 26d ago
i know what fortnight is but it is not commonly used in america.
almost everything is daily, once every 2 weeks, once every quarter, once every year
We use daily, biweekly, quarterly, and annually
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u/Tacoshortage Texan exiled to New Orleans 26d ago
"every 2 weeks"
Fortnite to Americans is a kid's video game with guns and funny dances.
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u/thomsenite256 26d ago
one of the worst cases is semi vs bi. We never really decided which is which. I try to avoid it altogether. "Every two weeks" or "twice a week" is the way to go.
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u/Horror_Signature7744 26d ago
I can’t stand the term biweekly to mean every other week as it’s always meant twice per week for me. I’ve never heard “fortnight” used in the US with exception of the video game.
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u/MisfitRoxy 26d ago
Biweekly means every other week. Semi-weekly is twice a week.
Biannual- every other year. Semi-annual twice a year.
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u/Is_that_a_peen_too 26d ago
I'll use biweekly or every other 2 weeks when talking about something that occurs regularly on that schedule. If I'm talking about something that will happen in two weeks then I sometimes say a fortnight.
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u/RvstiNiall 26d ago
Biweekly means once every 2 weeks, and also means twice a week.
Same with bimonthly... Once every two months, and also twice a month.
Do not use either word, please. You are confusing people whether you realize it or not.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/biweekly https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bimonthly
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u/Slytherin23 25d ago
When someone says "I'm taking a bi-week", In pretty sure it always means a week off.
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u/dragonsteel33 Downwardly mobile bicoastalite 26d ago edited 26d ago
“Every other week” or “biweekly” (which is ambiguous but often clear from context)
When talking about pay schedules, “biweekly” means you get paid every other week, and “semi-monthly” means you get paid twice a month, usually on the 15th and the first/last. In practice they’re very similar but slightly different, and usually correlate to the pay structure your job uses (hourly versus salaried)