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Hi there, I was listening a Tedtalk video on Youtube and I was very perplexed when the speaker said that :

" Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't "

The word "ever" here is so strange for me as I have never ever seen or listented any context in which "ever" is combinated with "will" or "ever" goes together with the future tense like this .

I hope you can give me a good answer! Plus, I will really appreciate if you can explain why in detail for me .

Thanks so much and have a great day ^^

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

queen115listening a Tedtalk video

listening to a

queen115seen or listented

seen or heard

queen115combinated

combined

queen115I hope you can give me a good answer!

Me, too. I think I see your problem, but "ever" there is natural and logical. Maybe if we look at the sentence without it, it will become apparent why it is there.

"Everyone you will meet knows something you don't." This is not natural because that idea is expressed a different way, "Everyone you meet will know something you don't."

If we put "ever" back in, we get "Everyone you ever meet will know something you don't." This is not ideal because it destroys the formula that allows the simple present in the subordinate clause by forcing the future on it.

This makes us abandon the simple present and use the future construction, "Everyone you will ever meet will know something you don't." This works, but the double "will" is clumsy, and is does not say what we want. The people we will be meeting already know the something you don't, so we let them have the simple present, "Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't."

All that is just analysis. We don't think about it that hard. In fact, I'm surprised it holds up under analysis.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

queen115" Everyone you will ever meet knows something you don't "

It's natural.

1. Everyone knows something you don't.

If you go around asking everybody in the world to tell you what they know, you will find out something new from each one.

2. Everyone (who) you will ever meet knows something you don't.

If every time you meet someone, now or in the future and you ask them to tell you what they know, you will find out something new from each one.

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