In this sentence:
Alf’s wife has never discovered that she married a dustpan and she never will, for Alf has just found another job.
Can I use ‘she will never’ to replace ‘she never will’ ? And why?
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Can you clarify the source of the example sentence? It has a couple other possible improvements. I don’t know what “she married a dustpan” means. That isn’t a usual phrase.– whiskeychiefCommented Sep 8, 2019 at 3:43
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@whiskeychief In the context, she wanted to marry a white-collar worker, and her husband told her he was a white-collar worker, but in fact he was a dustman who was not a white-collar worker.– Y. zengCommented Sep 16, 2019 at 9:20
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1 Answer
You cannot.
Q: Will she ever find out?
A: She never will.
Suggested change: "She will never."
Such a phrase is not used, at least as a stand-alone entity.
However, it can be applied in a longer expression: "She will never watch that movie."
Why?
The rule seems to be that "never" should precede the verb which it modifies. "never find out" "never watch" or just plain "never will."
Of course, "never will" does imply another verb. "Never will ... what?" You must have another verb in mind.
But at that very moment, if you are only saying "She never will.", then that's the ordering to follow.
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I absolutely do not agree with this. "He read the book orange", "She's going to figure this out. Not!" and "She will never" are not at all the same. What about phrases like "After the last experience, she will never go there again" or "I will never drink malort again"? Saying "She will never" is not a phrase that's used is completely wrong. You're suggesting that "she will never" is being used as a standalone sentence which is not what OP asked.– goat_fabCommented Sep 19, 2019 at 17:49
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@goat_fab , ok I have updated the answer. Do you agree now? :-) Or not.– SamCommented Sep 19, 2019 at 19:28
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I think you might even be able to simplify this explanation: The word "never" always modifies the word that follows it. If there's no word following it, then it has nothing to modify, which doesn't work.– FoogodCommented Mar 27, 2020 at 15:20
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@Foogod (actually though, the current answer says "precede the verb which it modifies", and that's pretty close to what you are saying, except omitting the word "always")– SamCommented Mar 27, 2020 at 16:08