Sometimes I forget I was ever a child.

[HenHanna]

I have a question about the following sentences from a novel.
Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
trusting.”
("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)
question: about "ever" or its usage in this sentence.
Could it be said also like: "Sometimes I forget I was once a child." ?

ever is like pas in French. [in the slightest
amount]


so yes, in a sense... that ever is like Once.


1. Let me know if you need help.
2. Let me know if you ever need help. --- ever = [in the
slightest amount]

[HenHanna]

i was going to ask about +0000 ------ Is he posting from the UK
?

but my post has +0000 too

Post by HenHanna

I have a question about the following sentences from a novel.
Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
trusting.”
("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)
question: about "ever" or its usage in this sentence.
Could it be said also like: "Sometimes I forget I was once a child." ?

ever is like pas in French. [in the slightest
amount]
so yes, in a sense... that ever is like Once.
1. Let me know if you need help.
2. Let me know if you ever need help. --- ever = [in the slightest
amount]

[tonbei]

"ever" is an emphatic word, so here it emphasizes the quoted sentence.
If so, still what I don't know is which part is emphasized "I forget
sometimes" or "I was a child", or the whole sentence.

[Peter Moylan]

Post by tonbei
"ever" is an emphatic word, so here it emphasizes the quoted
sentence. If so, still what I don't know is which part is emphasized
"I forget sometimes" or "I was a child", or the whole sentence.

Let's restore the original sentences.

Post by tonbei
Sometimes I forget I was ever a child. Ever young and stupid and
trusting.” ("Port Mortuary" by Patricia Cornwell, p258)

I guess the point has already been made that "ever" has a different
meaning in the two sentences. In the second sentence "ever" just means
"always". That's the simple case.

In the first sentence the negative-polarity "forget" makes the "ever"
mean "at any time". (Rather than the "at every time" meaning it would
have in a positive-polarity sentence.) Switching to a positive form of the
statement, we get "sometimes I believe that I was never a child".

The "never" and "ever" here are absolutes. In either form, the sentence
is stronger than weaker forms like "I forget that I was once a child"
which concede that he/she was a child for at least some of the time.

So I guess the answer to your question is that "ever" emphasizes the
clause "I was a child".