Do you have a minute to spare to learn some English? Saskia takes us through the who, what, where, when and why of question word + ever. Give us 60 seconds and we’ll give you the English!
Saskia
Hi, everyone. I’m Saskia and in this episode, we’re going to look at what it means when we add the word ‘ever’ to the end of a question word.
The most important thing to know is that when we add ‘ever’ to a question word, it’s not talking about anything specific. It often means we don’t know the who or the where, or they are not important. Let’s look at some examples.
Whoever ate my cake is in big trouble. This example means that ‘I do not know who ate my cake’.
Whenever I go to the cafe, there are never any sandwiches left. This means ‘the time when I go to the cafe is not important’.
I never put on weight, so I can eat whatever I like. This means ‘what I eat isn’t important’.
The puppy followed the girl wherever she went. By adding ‘ever’ to ‘where’ it means ‘the place is not important’.
So if you want to say the time, place, person or thing you’re talking about is not important or unknown, just add ‘ever’ to the correct question word.
Who, when, what, where + ever
Question word + ever
Adding ‘ever’ to a question word means that we aren’t talking about anything specific. It often means that we don’t know the person, time, thing or place, or that these things are unimportant.
Whoever
Whoever is used for a either a person we don’t know, or a person that it is unimportant to name.
- Whoever ate my cake is in big trouble.
- No one is allowed inmy bedroom – whoever you are.
Whenever
Whenever is used for a either a time we don’t know, or an unimportant time.
- Whenever I go to the cafe, there are never any sandwiches left.
- I can’t remember. Whenever we went, it can’t have been more than a month ago.
Whatever
Whatever is used for a either a thing we don’t know, or an unimportant thing.
- I never put on weight, so I can eat whatever I like.
- Whatever’s walking behind us sounds like a big animal. Go quickly.
Wherever
Wherever is used for a either a place we don’t know, or an unimportant place.
- The puppy followed the girl wherever she went.
- I can’t find the cafe again. Wherever it was, it was a great cup of coffee.