never

never

As a negative adverb, never refers primarily to repeated or continuous non-occurrence over a period of time: They never answer letters / It never rained at all last month. It should only be used informally to refer to one occasion, when a simple negative would be equally appropriate: I phoned you but you never rang back [better, you didn't ring back]; it is used with similar meaning in a number of fixed expressions such as never fear and well I never. It is also used idiomatically as an emphatic negative with reference to future time: You'll never catch the train now. The emphatic form never ever (sometimes with a comma between them) is also restricted to informal contexts:

• She continued, a little too vehemently, ‘I've never, ever been bored’ —Maggie Gee, 1985

• She was like a mother, but she could never ever be my mother —fiction website, AmE 2001.