Listen to the Lesson
We use this sentence pattern to emphasize that something has been done 0 times. It means that in the history of the world or in a person’s whole life, some action has been done 0 times.
- I have never visited China.
(=I have not visited China before.)
If we want to emphasize that something has been done 0 times in one’s life or in the history of the world, then we use “never”.
We use “have” or “has”. It depends on the subject of the sentence.
| I have… | You have… |
| We have… / Mary and I have… | It has… / The company has… |
| He has… / Jon has… | She has… / Mary has… |
| They have… / Jon and Mary have… | They have… / The countries have… |
Subject + have/has + never + past participle…
- I have never been to Africa.
- I have never been to this restaurant.
- I have never eaten raw fish.
- She has never met him before.
- He has never gone scuba diving.
- Mark has never gone fishing.
- They have never tried ice cream. Can you believe it?
- The countries have never signed a trade agreement together.
- We have never heard of him.
- She has never seen the movie Terminator.
- Mark has never worked for that company.
- Tina has never heard of that place.
- Greg has never tried snowboarding.
- The company has never tried to expand their product range.
We do not use “never” in questions like the ones below. Instead, we need to use “ever”.
Have you never been to America?- Have you ever been to America?
- Have you ever tried horse meat?
- Has she ever gone ice fishing?
You will only hear “never” used in a question when a person is expressing surprise. When used like this, it is not really a question.
A) I have never tried sushi.
B) Have you really never tried sushi?
Bonus Tips and Points
1. We can use the word “before” at the end of a sentence that uses “never” to emphasize.
- I have never been here before.
- She has never tried raw fish before.
- They have never met each other before.
- He has never been bungee jumping before.
- The boy has never failed a test before.
2. We can use the word “never” in a different way. We use “can never + verb” to tell about things that are always not allowed.
- Children can never go in the bar.
- We can never use the word “never” in a question.
- The dog can never go out without a person.
- I can never let her find out about this.
- We can never go out without getting permission from our mother.
Real-World English Conversations
A) Hawaii is a beautiful place. Don’t you agree?
B) Actually, I have never been there.
A) Really? That is surprising!
A) I have never tried cherry ice cream before.
B) Seriously? We need to go now and get some!
A) Have you tried snowboarding?
B) No. I have never gone snowboarding.
A) My grandmother has never left her hometown. She has spent her whole life there.
B) That is incredible. I have never heard anything like that before.
A) My boss has never told me, “Good job.”
B) I have never heard you say anything good about your boss.
A) She has never been on a date.
B) That is surprising because she is so pretty and nice.
A) I know, but I think she is very shy.
A) I have never smoked a cigarette in my life.
B) Good for you.
Use these free English lessons to learn the most common sentence patterns in the English language. If you learn these sentence and questions well, it will help you speak English well. Study the lessons thoroughly, practice making your own sentences, and come back to review often. If you do these three steps, your English speaking will improve quickly and you will be able to have natural English conversations.
English Sentence Patterns for Speaking Index
