Was just writing and paused when I came to this sentence. Should it be: By the end of every day, Joel was covered in a thick layer of grease. or At the end of every day, Joel was covered in a thick layer of grease. Kinda stuck on this one.
I'd chose the one you're instinctively leaning towards. You can best guess how it looks in the surrounding sentences and judge it's rhythm.
there is a difference: 'by the end of the day' suggests an ongoing situation throughout the day i.e. he's working in grease all day, therefore he's covered come quitting time. 'at the end of the day' suggests that, no matter how ulikely is sounds - he becomes covered in grease at that moment. 'At the end of the day' is a period of time, not a vague all day thing.
'By', to me, seems to have a feeling of 'building up throughout the day' whereas 'At' has a feeling of 'a point in time at the end of the day'. I think I will go with 'by'. Thank you all! EDIT: Evelon beat me to it!
Depending on the sentences that come before the one in question, both "by" and "at" can imply the same thing - eg. that throughout the course of the day he's getting covered in grease. However yes, if you want to emphasise that the grease builds up during the day, then "by" is better - but you can use either ultimately.
I sort of disagree there. I think that 'at' is more specific that 'by the end of'. A lot depends on the context I know, but based on the sentences given, there are two different meanings.
Yes, the sentence before it is: He would dive knee-deep into a large engine, taking it apart and putting it back together. By the end of every day, he would be covered in a thick, satisfying layer of grease. Seems either would work.
Yeah, given this context, I'd say either is fine - however I would agree with the consensus that "by" does feel better
