How to Use NEVER and EVER Correctly? - Basic English Grammar

hi everybody my name is Alisha today I'm

going to talk about the difference or some of the differences between the

words never and ever there are a lot of questions about how to use these words

so let's take a look okay the first word I want to start with is never let's talk

about never to begin never is an adverb it means at no time in the past or in

the future never is the contracted form of the words not and ever so not an ever

together make never never so never means at no time at no time we use never in a

few different situations I'm going to explain some examples now we use never

to give statements or to give advice or to explain a statement rather so let's

look at a couple examples first never skip breakfast never skip breakfast is

an example of advice this is advice or perhaps we could consider this a command

so never skip breakfast meaning at no time should you or should one skip

breakfast never skip breakfast as a command or a type of advice in this case

in a statement however we see this example I never travel with lots of cash

so this is a statement of fact in this case I'm using the present tense

I never travel you can use the past tense I've never traveled as well but

keep in mind never shows at no time do I travel in present tense in this case

with lots of cash so this is an example of a statement a simple statement with

the word never okay let's look at another way to use the word never we use

never in in cases where we want to explain an absence of experience so no

experience no life experience with something so we use this with the past

participle verb so it's never with the past participle form of the verb in

these patterns for example I've never been to Vietnam here I've got

the contracted eyes which is the contracted form of I have I have never

been to Vietnam Binh is my past participial verb here another example

he's never eaten kimchi so here the contraction he's is he is refers to

he I'm sorry the contracted form of he's refers to he has in this sentence so

he's never eaten kimchi he has never eaten kimchi my past participle verb is

eaten here so we use these to talk about no experience no life experience with

something this one is maybe one that many of you have had a lot of practice

with okay but let's look at another one that requires some changes to your

intonation perhaps when we ask questions for confirmation as in yes or no

questions we can use the word never so keep in mind that these expressions are

used with kind of a nuance of disbelief or surprised you're surprised about

something and you're asking the question just to check with the other person is

this correct for example you've never been sick so the emphasis here is on the

word never with the voice you've never been sick again you can see I have the

past participle form of the verb here so we're saying you have never been meaning

have the experience of you have never had the experience of being sick and

here I've used a very informal kind of punctuation I've used a question mark

and an exclamation point but generally we should only use one

type of punctuation here but with your voice you should emphasize the word

never the new ones here is disbelief let's look at another example

she's never taken a day off she's never taken a day off so again with my voice I

emphasized the word never she's never taken a day off so I'm surprised by this

information I'm surprised to hear and I want to confirm because it sounds like

it could be untrue it sounds like it might not be real so I use this

to confirm what I've just heard or what I've just learned when you answer these

questions by the way sometimes it's a little bit difficult

even for native speakers to decide should I say yes or no if you want to be

very clear you can say that's right I've never been sick in this example or

that's right she's never taken a day off you can use that's right or you're right

or yes that's right to explain an answer to this question okay so those are a few

examples of ways we can use the word never in some sentence patterns let's

take a look now at the word ever so ever has a few more situations then never

does I want to explain these today so first again ever

like never is an adverb but ever means at any time or at all times keep in mind

that never means at no time at no time ever means at any time or at all time so

you can think of these a little bit as opposites in a way we use ever when

we're making questions so for example have you ever eaten Thai food or has she

ever called you here we see the words ever meaning at anytime so at any time

has she called you at any time have you eaten Thai food this is a different way

to ask the question so you'll notice these types of questions will get these

kinds of responses a negative response admittedly but there's a connection here

when you want to make a negative response you can use never so these are

some may be example questions this type of question maybe you're familiar with

again we see the past participle form of the verb in these questions sentences

eaten and called here so this is one way that we can use the word ever and

another way we can use it when we make negative statements let's take a look at

some examples first he hasn't ever yelled at me so

here's ever and they haven't ever been to France so once more we see this past

participle form of the verb yelled and been in these examples but we see also

I'm using the negative has not and have not so there's this negative not before

the word ever here please keep in mind you can use never in these situations

but you need to change the sentence slightly so you can use the negative

form as we have here plus ever like has not ever or have not ever or you can

simply use the word never mmm for example he's never yelled at me or

they've never been to France because remember the word never is a contraction

of the words not and ever so regardless of which you choose both sentences are

okay both sentences explain the same meaning okay let's look at another

example superlatives superlatives remember superlatives means like the

most something the most plus an adjective so the highest level of

something for example she made the most delicious

chocolate cake I've ever eaten the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever eaten

so here is a superlative most delicious and here I'm saying in my life the most

delicious one I have ever eaten you might also see this sentence simplified

to she made the most delicious chocolate cake ever this ever contains the meaning

I've ever eaten I've ever eaten so native speakers like to simplify this

expression at the end of the sentence with just the word ever

you might hear this another very common example is this expression best day ever

meaning today for me was the best day in my life

best day ever best day ever so you might see this with superlatives here the

superlative is best best okay we also see the word ever used when we talk

about the first time to do something our first time doing something for example

this is the first time I'm sorry this is the first time I've ever traveled abroad

forgot my ever there this is the first time I've ever

traveled abroad so here ever acts as an emphasize ER for first time so the

sentence this is the first time I've traveled abroad is fine actually

but ever emphasizes that the first time at my in my whole life in other words at

all times this is the first time I've ever traveled abroad you'll see ever

acting kind of to emphasize the expression in first time sentences we

can use ever when we make comparisons so I talked about the superlative form here

like most delicious or best in my examples but you'll see here in the

expressions higher than ever or faster than ever or stronger than ever we can

use ever to make the comparison so here we also use van van so ever here is

meaning at any time in the past anytime previous to this statement so for

example profits are higher than ever ever referring to any time in the past

or these cars are faster than ever meaning at any time in the past compared

to any time in the past the cars available now are faster so we can use

ever to make comparisons quite easily to next let's look at some commands so

there's a fairly limited number of natural commands that we use with the

word ever but some examples might be don't ever say that or don't ever lie to

me again this same rule negative plus ever or never this can also apply here

so for example never say that or never lie to me we can use those expressions

to you'll just see these two don't ever or don't ever say that or don't ever lie

to me these might be a couple of other ways people use the expression people

use a command form but again the same rule applies negative plus ever alright

almost finished let's take a look at adjectives intensifiers you might see

this in more formal situations or perhaps in slightly old-fashioned

writing ever can act as an adjective intensifier

when used with a word so so ever so + adjective for example ever so delicious

this cake was ever so delicious or she was ever so kind these just

emphasize the adjective that follows so they they're just essentially meaning

very really or extremely but they sound quite formal they sound rather polite

though so we can use ever to intensify to strengthen the meaning of an

adjective okay those are the main points I want to talk about but one final thing

is the expression never ever a couple examples I never ever eat junk food or

he never ever comes to work late or we never ever forget to lock the house

these sentences use both never and ever together so let's take a look what does

this mean actually never ever is just an emphasis for the word never so meaning

at no time anytime does this thing happen so it's an emphasis for the word

never that's what never ever never ever means

emphasis emphasis never ever means emphasis on the word never so if you see

this that's what it means okay so those are a few ways that you can reuse the

words never and ever of course there are many different situations in many

different sentences where you can use these if you have any questions or

comments please feel free to let us know in the comment section below this video

what else I guess that's it okay so thanks very much for watching this

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