Application and meaning of as/like they did every day

[JACEK1]

Hello all forum users!

There is a constant fight going on in my head about which is correct: like they did every day or as they did every day.
I know for sure that "like they did every day" means the same as "as they did every day". The first version is not appropriate (from a grammatical point of view although acceptable) whereas the second one is 100 % correct.
Let's take the following sentence:

They went to clean the windows like they did every day.
=
They went to clean the windows as they did every day.

The meaning is obvious: They went to clean the windows the way they did every day.

What is your opinion?

Thank you.

 

[jutfrank]

I generally agree with you.

However, there is a possible ambiguity here if you don't use a comma.

They went to clean the windows, as they did every day.

Using a comma before as makes us think that they went to clean windows every day.

They went to clean the windows like they did every day.

Here, it could be interpreted that they cleaned the windows in the same way every day.

 

[GoesStation]

Few American-English speakers make a distinction between "as" and "like" in sentences like yours.