Greetings to all.
Is there any difference between “forever”, “always” and “ever”?
Thanks in advance.
God bless youall.
Cisco.
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‘Forever’ means for an infinite length of time.
‘Always’ means at all times.
‘Ever’ is a question word (and is also used in negative sentences); it has no time value.
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“I will always love you”
“I will forever love you”
Is there any difference between the two?
“An ever-present danger”. He is ever ready to find fault.
“He is ever ready to find fault”.
Could “ever” have an “always/forever” meaning in these examples?
“An everlasting impression that will endure forever”
Does “ever” get the “always/forever” meaning when used as a compound adjective?
I looked up these three words in an on-line dictionary. “Always” and “forever” share pretty much the same meaning, they are both adverbs, etc. How could one recognize a method to distingu¡shly used them properly in context?
Last but not least comes “ever” which intrigues me the most for the reason stated above.
Thanks once again for your kidness.
God bless you.
Cisco.
I think that the meaning of forever and always are clear…
We use forever to say something will never end in future, but we can’t use forever in past like we use always : He always used to wash the dishes for her… or He always wanted to drive in Formula 1.
Now…forever contains ever… we can say: for ever and ever… so forever is for ever, am I right?
We are actually building words with ever… like: forever, eversince, whatever, whoever, whenever, however…
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He was forever forgetting my birthday; that’s why I divorced him.
Yes, forever was originally for ever (but there is no ‘eversince’); however, ever is more akin to always in meaning.
“I will always love you”-- until the end of time
“I will forever love you”-- until the end of time
Is there any difference between the two?-- Here I think the intent is the same.
“An ever-present danger”. He is ever ready to find fault. “He is ever ready to find fault”. Could “ever” have an “always/forever” meaning in these examples?-- Yes, it does
“An everlasting impression that will endure forever”
Does “ever” get the “always/forever” meaning when used as a compound adjective?-- Here it does, at least.
The various meanings of all these words overlap (as you found, Cisco), and my first post was a bit simplistic. Where the meanings are the same, they can mostly be used synonymously; what you need to watch for is when different meanings are employed.
Always: (1) at all times, all the time and on every occasion; (2) forever, throughout all time; (3) seemingly without interruption, often and repeatedly.
Forever: (1) for a very long or seemingly endless time; (2) seemingly without interruption; often and repeatedly; (3) for a limitless time.
Ever: (1) at any time; (2) at all times; all the time and on every occasion; (3) (intensifier for adjectives) very.
How could one recognize a method to distingu¡sh used them properly in context?-- Exactly: the context should bear clues to the intended meaning.
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Wow, awesome. Thanks a million! Now, I just need to sit down for a couple of weeks and master the differenciations. :0)
God bless you Mister Micawer.
Merry Christmas.
Cisco.