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Sun 14 May, 2006 11:36 am
There are sentences that make me confused. What's the exact meanings are:
1) This is the game I have ever played
= This is the game i never played before, or
= I played this game before
= I always play this game
which one is correct ?
2) If the players play very well, then we can say
a) "We can ask anything more from the players", or
b) "We can't ask anything more from the players",
which one is correct?
3)Are you not going to London ? If i am not going to Lodon, what the reply should be?
a) Yes i am
b) No i am not
Confusions
1) You could say:
"This is a game I have played before" or
"I have played this game before" or
"I have always played this game".
You can't say "This is the game I have ever played". The correct sentence there would be "This is the game I always played" or "This is the game I have always played". The distinction is subtle, but "I have always" implies that I still play the game, while "I always played" implies that at one period I played it, as "when I was a child this was the game I always played", but I no longer play it.
2) You have a choice:
"We can't ask anything more from the players" or "We can ask nothing more from the players". You only need one negative, and either one will be fine. Also - it is more customary to use "of" rather than "from" here, though both are correct.
3) b) is correct.
Thanks for your reply.
For 1), if i want to express the meaning that i have never played this game before. can i express it in this way:
I have ever played this game.
It seems to me that "ever" and "never" could sometime be interchangeable, is it correct?
Quote:You can't say "This is the game I have ever played".
- But for centuries this would have been perfectly acceptable English; "ever" used to be a synonym for "always" (and logically, the antonym of "never"). It's possible that the original poster came across this phrase in a pre-20th-century text.