Everis an adverb.
Ever: at any time
Questions
We useeverin questions:
Has heeverscored a goal before?(at any time in his life)
Do youeverdream about winning the lottery?
Have youeverheard of The Ivy restaurant?
Negatives
We can usenot … everin negatives, butneveris more common thannot ever:
Laurie doesn’t evercall me at weekends. or Laurienevercalls me …
We haven’t everhad a problem with noise in the neighbourhood before or We’veneverhad a problem with noise …
We useeverin negative statements with words likeno one, nobodyandhardly:
No one evertold me what had happened.
I havehardly evereaten Vietnamese food.
Everafterif
We can useeverimmediately afterifor in mid position (between the subject and the main verb, or after the modal verb or first auxiliary verb, or after main verbbe):
If everyou move house, I’d advise you to get a good removal company.
Ifyouevergo to Edinburgh, make sure to visit the Art Gallery.
IfI hadeverwanted to stay in Manchester, they would have made me very welcome, I’m sure.
Ever soandever such
We useeverbeforesoandsuchto add emphasis:
I feelever socold.
He wasever sucha kind man.
See also:
So
Such
Ever since
We useeverbeforesinceto emphasise that something has been true from the beginning of a specific period of time:
Ever sincewe met, we have been such great friends.
Mrs Leech doesn’t go for walks on her ownever sinceshe fell.
As … as ever
We can useeverwith the comparative formas … as…. This shows a permanent characteristic of someone or something:
A:How is work?
B:Don’t ask! It’sas busy as ever.
They’ve built a new road around the city but traffic isas bad as ever.
Evermeaning ‘always’
In more formal situations, we can useeverwith adjectives to mean ‘always’:
The company cannot sustainever-decreasing profits.
Jones waseveravailable to help the family.