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

159,202 views ・ 2018-10-10

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hi everybody my name is Alisha today I'm
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going to talk about the difference or some of the differences between the
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words never and ever there are a lot of questions about how to use these words
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so let's take a look okay the first word I want to start with is never let's talk
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about never to begin never is an adverb it means at no time in the past or in
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the future never is the contracted form of the words not and ever so not an ever
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together make never never so never means at no time at no time we use never in a
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few different situations I'm going to explain some examples now we use never
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to give statements or to give advice or to explain a statement rather so let's
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look at a couple examples first never skip breakfast never skip breakfast is
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an example of advice this is advice or perhaps we could consider this a command
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so never skip breakfast meaning at no time should you or should one skip
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breakfast never skip breakfast as a command or a type of advice in this case
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in a statement however we see this example I never travel with lots of cash
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so this is a statement of fact in this case I'm using the present tense
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I never travel you can use the past tense I've never traveled as well but
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keep in mind never shows at no time do I travel in present tense in this case
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with lots of cash so this is an example of a statement a simple statement with
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the word never okay let's look at another way to use the word never we use
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never in in cases where we want to explain an absence of experience so no
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experience no life experience with something so we use this with the past
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participle verb so it's never with the past participle form of the verb in
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these patterns for example I've never been to Vietnam here I've got
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the contracted eyes which is the contracted form of I have I have never
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been to Vietnam Binh is my past participial verb here another example
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he's never eaten kimchi so here the contraction he's is he is refers to
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he I'm sorry the contracted form of he's refers to he has in this sentence so
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he's never eaten kimchi he has never eaten kimchi my past participle verb is
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eaten here so we use these to talk about no experience no life experience with
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something this one is maybe one that many of you have had a lot of practice
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with okay but let's look at another one that requires some changes to your
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intonation perhaps when we ask questions for confirmation as in yes or no
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questions we can use the word never so keep in mind that these expressions are
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used with kind of a nuance of disbelief or surprised you're surprised about
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something and you're asking the question just to check with the other person is
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this correct for example you've never been sick so the emphasis here is on the
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word never with the voice you've never been sick again you can see I have the
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past participle form of the verb here so we're saying you have never been meaning
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have the experience of you have never had the experience of being sick and
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here I've used a very informal kind of punctuation I've used a question mark
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and an exclamation point but generally we should only use one
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type of punctuation here but with your voice you should emphasize the word
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never the new ones here is disbelief let's look at another example
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she's never taken a day off she's never taken a day off so again with my voice I
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emphasized the word never she's never taken a day off so I'm surprised by this
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information I'm surprised to hear and I want to confirm because it sounds like
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it could be untrue it sounds like it might not be real so I use this
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to confirm what I've just heard or what I've just learned when you answer these
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questions by the way sometimes it's a little bit difficult
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even for native speakers to decide should I say yes or no if you want to be
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very clear you can say that's right I've never been sick in this example or
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that's right she's never taken a day off you can use that's right or you're right
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or yes that's right to explain an answer to this question okay so those are a few
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examples of ways we can use the word never in some sentence patterns let's
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take a look now at the word ever so ever has a few more situations then never
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does I want to explain these today so first again ever
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like never is an adverb but ever means at any time or at all times keep in mind
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that never means at no time at no time ever means at any time or at all time so
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you can think of these a little bit as opposites in a way we use ever when
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we're making questions so for example have you ever eaten Thai food or has she
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ever called you here we see the words ever meaning at anytime so at any time
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has she called you at any time have you eaten Thai food this is a different way
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to ask the question so you'll notice these types of questions will get these
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kinds of responses a negative response admittedly but there's a connection here
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when you want to make a negative response you can use never so these are
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some may be example questions this type of question maybe you're familiar with
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again we see the past participle form of the verb in these questions sentences
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eaten and called here so this is one way that we can use the word ever and
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another way we can use it when we make negative statements let's take a look at
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some examples first he hasn't ever yelled at me so
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here's ever and they haven't ever been to France so once more we see this past
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participle form of the verb yelled and been in these examples but we see also
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I'm using the negative has not and have not so there's this negative not before
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the word ever here please keep in mind you can use never in these situations
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but you need to change the sentence slightly so you can use the negative
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form as we have here plus ever like has not ever or have not ever or you can
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simply use the word never mmm for example he's never yelled at me or
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they've never been to France because remember the word never is a contraction
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of the words not and ever so regardless of which you choose both sentences are
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okay both sentences explain the same meaning okay let's look at another
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example superlatives superlatives remember superlatives means like the
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most something the most plus an adjective so the highest level of
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something for example she made the most delicious
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chocolate cake I've ever eaten the most delicious chocolate cake I've ever eaten
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so here is a superlative most delicious and here I'm saying in my life the most
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delicious one I have ever eaten you might also see this sentence simplified
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to she made the most delicious chocolate cake ever this ever contains the meaning
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I've ever eaten I've ever eaten so native speakers like to simplify this
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expression at the end of the sentence with just the word ever
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you might hear this another very common example is this expression best day ever
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meaning today for me was the best day in my life
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best day ever best day ever so you might see this with superlatives here the
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superlative is best best okay we also see the word ever used when we talk
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about the first time to do something our first time doing something for example
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this is the first time I'm sorry this is the first time I've ever traveled abroad
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forgot my ever there this is the first time I've ever
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traveled abroad so here ever acts as an emphasize ER for first time so the
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sentence this is the first time I've traveled abroad is fine actually
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but ever emphasizes that the first time at my in my whole life in other words at
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all times this is the first time I've ever traveled abroad you'll see ever
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acting kind of to emphasize the expression in first time sentences we
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can use ever when we make comparisons so I talked about the superlative form here
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like most delicious or best in my examples but you'll see here in the
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expressions higher than ever or faster than ever or stronger than ever we can
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use ever to make the comparison so here we also use van van so ever here is
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meaning at any time in the past anytime previous to this statement so for
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example profits are higher than ever ever referring to any time in the past
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or these cars are faster than ever meaning at any time in the past compared
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to any time in the past the cars available now are faster so we can use
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ever to make comparisons quite easily to next let's look at some commands so
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there's a fairly limited number of natural commands that we use with the
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word ever but some examples might be don't ever say that or don't ever lie to
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me again this same rule negative plus ever or never this can also apply here
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so for example never say that or never lie to me we can use those expressions
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to you'll just see these two don't ever or don't ever say that or don't ever lie
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to me these might be a couple of other ways people use the expression people
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use a command form but again the same rule applies negative plus ever alright
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almost finished let's take a look at adjectives intensifiers you might see
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this in more formal situations or perhaps in slightly old-fashioned
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writing ever can act as an adjective intensifier
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when used with a word so so ever so + adjective for example ever so delicious
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this cake was ever so delicious or she was ever so kind these just
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emphasize the adjective that follows so they they're just essentially meaning
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very really or extremely but they sound quite formal they sound rather polite
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though so we can use ever to intensify to strengthen the meaning of an
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adjective okay those are the main points I want to talk about but one final thing
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is the expression never ever a couple examples I never ever eat junk food or
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he never ever comes to work late or we never ever forget to lock the house
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these sentences use both never and ever together so let's take a look what does
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this mean actually never ever is just an emphasis for the word never so meaning
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at no time anytime does this thing happen so it's an emphasis for the word
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never that's what never ever never ever means
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emphasis emphasis never ever means emphasis on the word never so if you see
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this that's what it means okay so those are a few ways that you can reuse the
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words never and ever of course there are many different situations in many
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different sentences where you can use these if you have any questions or
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comments please feel free to let us know in the comment section below this video
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what else I guess that's it okay so thanks very much for watching this
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episode and I will see you again soon please make sure to hit the like button
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if you haven't already and subscribe to the channel too you can check us out at
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English class 101.com for more good stuff to study thanks very much and I'll
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see you again next time bye bye
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