always and never?

No, they mean slightly different things.
Never = 0. You go where he is 200 times and he is there 0 times
Not always = 1-199 times, but at least one time he wasn't there when you were there.
Always = 200 out of 200 times.
everyday has a slightly different meaning from every day.
Everyday is not special, ordinary. Every day means all the days in a given time range: He was here every day for a month.

Always means 'all of the time' (not every day). So if he's not always there, then it means he sometimes isn't. 'Not always' is not the opposite 'always', as it is a condition (e.g. just because you aren't hot doesn't mean you're cold). Never is the opposite of always and means 'not ever'.

PS People often use 'always' and 'never' to mean 'usually' and 'seldom'. As in: 'He's never here when you need him!'

I agree with Kenn. "Always" means at all times, not "everyday". If someone is there always, then that person eats, sleeps, etc. at that place. People sometimes use "always" to mean usually, but that isn't what it really means.

Both are usually hyperbole, rather than statements with literal meaning. "Always" just means "a lot", and "never" just means "not as much as I want him to be here".

catian said:

Hi there.
Thank you for all your responses.
'all the time' is the same as 'everyday'.
How else would you explain 'all the time' in terms of 'quantity'?
In other words how would you quantify
Never
and
Always
He always loved her.
and
He never loved her.

In quantum terms,
'always' must 'everyday'
and
'never' must mean 'not one day'?!

so to recap:

not always must be the same as never.

Click to expand...

Your logic is flawed. Always means at all times, every nanosecond of every millennium. Not always means that there was at least one nanosecone missed. "Not always could mean every day, except for Fridays. "Never" means at no time ever, nit for a single nanosendond out of allof the aeons. There is a lot of rom between "never' and 'always'.

catian said:

'all the time' is the same as 'everyday'.

Click to expand...

No, it isn't. Start with this, and proceed through your other incorrect interpretations of the meaning of these words. First, in colloquial context, the way people speak, both these terms are vaguely bounded. But, in general, you might speak of a business person who is present "all the time", e.g., whenever the business is open, but a customer who is there "everyday", e.g., stops in to make a purchase every day. I visit a particular coffee shop most mornings to pick up a cup of chocolate. I know the employees, they know me, and if anyone asked, they'd probably say, "He's here every day." But I'm certainly not there "all the time".

You're trying too hard to create antonyms and synonyms out of words that aren't either.

caw

Nitpicks ahoy!

"Everyday" is an adjective meaning ordinary or routine.

"Every day" means, well, each and every day.

Therefore "everyday" is not the same as "all the time."

What she said.
((absitinvidia: Isn't that a daisy?))

absitinvidia said:

Nitpicks ahoy!

"Everyday" is an adjective meaning ordinary or routine.

"Every day" means, well, each and every day.

Therefore "everyday" is not the same as "all the time."

Click to expand...

Good distinction to make, abs.

In mathematics the differences among those words are perfectly clear, and might help if you thought of "always" being the set of time that includes all points in tiime, while "never is the null set; there is no time in it. Every day is the set of one point in time in each day.

You might also think of the color palate as an analogy ib which the entire color palate is all possible times. "always" in shown as white, while "never" is shown as black. While the two are vastly different, there are many possibilities that are different. If you want to say that something is blue, then you would use blue, not part of white.

If you want to say that something happens frequently, then use the word "frequently", and so on. But infrequently doesn't mena never.

absitinvidia said:

Nitpicks ahoy!

"Everyday" is an adjective meaning ordinary or routine.

"Every day" means, well, each and every day.

Therefore "everyday" is not the same as "all the time."

Click to expand...

Yes, yes, yes.

She went to the market every day does not mean the same as Her going to the market was an everyday event.

She might go to the market every day because she's crazy about the man who works there.So she goes every day, but it's not an everyday experience--it's exciting for her.


Or, she might go once a week, but her trip would still be an everyday event, right up there with washing the dishes and dusting the table.