Usage of "ever"

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello

I was trying to explain to a friend of mine the usage of the frequency adverb “ever” and she asked why should “ever” be used in the following sentence instead of “never”:

‘You are the nicest person I’ve ever met’

The question arises from its sense being that she has ‘never’ met a person like them before. And the other reason is that we spanish-speakers sometimes use the word ‘jam?s’ (never) in that sentence:

‘T? eres la persona m?s dulce que jam?s he conocido’

When I argued that we in Spanish say ‘T? eres la pesona m?s dulce que alguna vez he conocido’ (where ‘alguna vez’ means ‘ever’), she replied that we can also use jam?s , so it would logically follow that both ‘ever’ and ‘never’ could be possibly used.

So, I have two questions:

  1. Can we say ‘You’re the nicest person I’ve never met’? (I think not, and it sounds ackward to me)

  2. Could it be that you use ‘ever’ right after using a superlative? e.g. ‘This is the best website ever…’, etc.

Could you please help me to explain this to her? (I’d like to have a different reason from that of ‘It just sounds good’)

Thanks in advance.

2

Hi,

You are quite right in saying it sounds wrong (in fact nonsense in English) to say: You are the nicest person I’ve never met because if you have never met someone, you can’t speak to them!!

Ever, as you say can be used with superlatives and is also used in questions as: Have you ever been to Sweden? Another use is in conditional sentences as: If I ever have enough money, I shall go on a world cruise. It has the sense of up till now/in my life so far in the question form and in the conditional form it has the sense of 'if it happens but I don’t think it’s likely. And of course it can be used with not to never as: I haven’t ever been to Sweden.

Alan

3

Thank you very much. Now I can help her (and me) out.

4

As the poster above stated, you can use ever after a negative like ‘not.’ Look at these lyrics to a popular children’s song. youtube.com/watch?v=KPzv6wzlz_g here it is performed in youtube. Maybe your friend will remember the usage of ever and never if he learns the song.