Word Usage – ‘Back in the Day’ vs ‘Back in the Days’: Understanding the Difference

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Is there any difference between the two idioms back in the day and back in the days? Most of the free online dictionaries only give the version with day, but I have certainly seen native English speakers use both versions–with day and days.

An example from Cambridge Dictionary:

Back in the day, we had an apartment with a swimming pool.

Is this sentence interchangeable with:

Back in the days, we had an apartment with a swimming pool.

?

Best Answer

Good question. Fascinating NGram supporting Kate's comment about back in the day being a recent development.

Google Ngram Back in The Day vs Back in the Days

To some extent your sentences are not interchangeable. Your second sentence should read something like -

Back in the days of paying rent, we had an apartment with a swimming pool.

Which is like saying -

Back in the day, when we were renters, we had an apartment with a swimming pool.

Back in the Day, is a slangy way of saying, when I was younger or some time ago. The phrase is usually followed by a anecdote describing what someone experienced or how they behaved in their past.

Back in the day, we had to change TV Channels by turning a tiny knob on the TV.

Back in the days is the more traditional usage of the phrase and its usage is slightly different. It is used to establish a time frame and is intended to be more specific than its slangy counterpart. It is generally followed by some illustrative phrase, often starting with the word 'of', intended to establish a time period.

Back in the days of black and white television, we changed channels by turning a tiny knob.