I heard this sentence on a podcast.
The world seems like a more confusing place in ever these days.
I wonder why it is 'in ever' not 'than ever'.
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3That looks like an error—or perhaps a misguided attempt to reproduce the sound of speech.– Jeffrey CarneyCommented Dec 18, 2021 at 4:03
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Thank you very much.– user99622Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 4:10
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1 Answer
In casual, spoken English (and possibly in all languages), speakers omit sounds, run sounds together and merge sounds . There is an 's' sound at the end of 'place' and a 'th' sound at the beginning of 'than'. These are similar enough but different enough that a casual speaker might omit the 'th', leaving "place 'an ever", which someone (like you) could mishear as 'in ever'. 'in ever' is just wrong in this sentence (and very rare in any sentence - I can't immediately think of a sentence where I would naturally use 'in ever').
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Thank you very much.– user99622Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 12:50
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I found this sentence in Urban Dictionary. Then, can in ever be used with a superlative adjective?– user99622Commented Dec 18, 2021 at 13:20
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1The Urban Dictionary is site where anyone can post anything. Be careful about using it! Searching on Google for "in ever" (in quotation marks for an exact match), I found no actual uses by anyone. (I found two skateboarding videos titled "The scariest drop in ever?!" and "Emma faces her biggest drop in ever?!" but they are about a skateboarding move called a "drop-in", and it's actually "The scariest drop-in, ever".) People may say it, but they don't write it anywhere Google can find it. If people do say it, it's very, very rare and very, very non-standard.– SydneyCommented Dec 20, 2021 at 10:10
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Thank you very much.– user99622Commented Dec 20, 2021 at 22:26
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I remembered the similar phrase 'in forever', which is slightly more used and mostly accepted as informal England. "I haven't seen you in forever" means 'for a very long time', not 'forever'.– SydneyCommented Dec 25, 2021 at 20:23