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Unread Apr 26th, 2010, 02:01 am
Sue
 
Join Date: Oct 8th, 2006
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Default Re: Too many questions about grammar amd meaning

Quote:
Quote thadajirajaras View Post
13)I never was sad when I was with my grandmother--> Can I use never in this sentence?
Yes, but look at the word order : I was never sad when I was with my grandmother.

Single-word adverbs of frequency (always, often, sometimes, never etc) always come after the verb Be in the present and past (see examples A1 and A2 below), but before any other main verb (see example B) or Be in other forms (see example C). So, eg :

A1. David is always at the Rome office on Tuesdays.
A2. David was always afraid of dogs as a child.
but

B. David always works at the Rome office on Tuesdays.
and

C. David has always been afraid of dogs.

The only time that you might put never in front of Be in your sentence would be to emphasise it -and then it would have very heavy stress, eg:

A : I hated visiting my grandparents as a child.
B: I never was sad when I was with my grandparents.

However, this is unusual. I typed never+was into a concordancer and got only 5 examples of this word order in the type of sentences we're talking about here. I then tried was+never and got the full 40 examples that are available. So use that word order - it will always be correct.
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