I want to know if I used the word ever correctly in the following sentence.
I wanted it to mean that the students waited tables at least once during their first semesters of studies.
By the way, if there is any mistake in this post, correct it, please.
Most university students have ever waited tables to earn some money
during their firsts study semesters.
Thanks in advance.
Best Answer
Like "any" and its compounds ("anybody", "anywhere" etc), "ever" is only used in that sense in negative polarity constructions:
Negatives:
Questions:
With modifiers such as "only", "hardly", "few" (though these do not at first sight appear to be negative grammatically, they regularly select negative polarity items):
It is not used in positive affirmative sentences: