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I am really confused about the usage of "never" and "ever".

When I am talking about "never" and "ever", I see that they are not verbs, so they don't affect the verb after them.

But what is the difference between, "She never eats meat", and "She has never eaten meat"?

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    A word doesn't have to be a verb to "effect the verb after them"; adverbs and adjectives and sometimes even nouns (acting as adjectives) can modify verbs. Here, never and ever are adverbs. They're changing the scope (temporally) of the verb. Your second sentence is incorrect, but comparing the correct version "She has never eaten meat" to "She never eats meat": the latter is a description of a habit or ethic and implies the person doesn't eat meat now and will not eat meat in he future, but leaves open the possibility that she has eaten meat before. The former leaves the future open.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Sep 24, 2016 at 16:24
  • Welcome to ELL Ahmed! Mari-Lou has edited your question to make it easier to understand. Proper capitalization and adding some line breaks will help people understand your question and may result in better answers.
    – ColleenV
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 0:04

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The sentence "She never eats meat" describes a habit: not eating meat. Not in the past, not today, and presumably not in the future (assuming that she does not break her habit). Describing a habit that is still being maintained requires the simple present ("eats" is the simple present, third person singular of the verb "to eat").

The sentence "She has never eaten meat" describes something about the past that is still valid today (today/now= the moment when this sentence is said). It does not imply that not eating meat is a habit. Similar sentences that also use the present perfect (have/has + past participle):

  • She has never been to the sea. ("Not going to the sea" is not a habit; the sentence just says that "going to the sea" is something she has not done so far. The question, "Has she ever been to the sea" could be answered with, "No, she has never been to the sea.")
  • She has always been top of her class at school. (This sentence also describes something in the past that is still valid today. The sentence implies that the girl is still attending school, but not that being top of the class is a habit. Being top of your class depends not only on your own performance, but also the performance of your classmates.)
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