Editor's Corner

Dear Editrix,

I keep noticing lately—and only in the past year or so—people ending a conversation by saying “Have a great rest of your/the day.” Do you think that we consider this proper grammar? Where does this come from? Am I wrong in thinking that this just recently became popular?

I would think that “Have a great day,” as I always heard it, worked just fine, and that “I hope the rest of your day goes well,” or something similar, works better than “Have a great rest of your day,” which almost sounds like “I hope that your rest goes well—the rest that is to happen on your day!”

Sincerely,

Enjoying My Rest

Dear Rest,

I have to agree with you that “have a great rest of your day” is grammatically awkward. “Enjoy the rest of the day,” or “Enjoy the remainder of your day,” are grammatically correct, but “have a great rest of your day” is a bit ambiguous. Are we talking about a nap? Or are we talking about enjoying the remainder of the day?

I couldn’t find any information about when this started becoming popular, but I found a ton of discussion threads about how annoying a lot of people find it. Many called it a “peeve” of theirs. And then the response from others (using less pleasant language) was “Why are you complaining? People are trying to be nice!” I also saw that one person said it’s perfectly fine, but their first language was Portuguese, so I’m going to write that off.

My guess, from the number of people out there complaining online, is that it is being used more frequently. I also found an article by Shopify that listed it as a nice thing to say to show your thanks to customers. Hmmm. I’m with you. I’d stick with “Have a good/great day” or even “Enjoy the rest of the day.”

Enjoying their rest for the day

Kara Church

Technical Editor, Advisory

Symitar Documentation Services