'never' and 'for three years'

Hello

How does the sentence below sound to you?

“I’ve never seen him for three years”

Can we use “never” together with “for three years”?


Hanako

No. Never means 'not ever,' and therefore cannot be used to refer to a period of time (e.g. three years). You can say 'I have not seen him for three years,' or for emphasis: 'I have not seen him at all for three years.'

Yes you can in some cases:

"I've never seen him for more than three years in a row, because he's always travelling away overseas"

But not in general.

>>No. Never means 'not ever,' and therefore cannot be used to refer to a period of time (e.g. three years). You can say 'I have not seen him for three years,' or for emphasis: 'I have not seen him at all for three years.' <<

That's not strictly true, as you could say

'I never saw him for 3 years' meaning you didn't see him within that period of time, but you had seen him before, and have done since. I think it's actually a question of it being in the wrong tense.