We never could vs We could never

Both "we never could" and "we could never" are correct and have the same meaning but may be used in different contexts depending on the emphasis the speaker wants to convey.

Explained by Michele A.
Editor at TextRanch

Last updated: April 02, 2025 • 4552 views

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

"We never could"

This phrase is used to express the inability to do something in the past. It emphasizes the fact that the action was never achievable.

Examples:

We never could have finished the project without your help.
They never could have imagined the impact of their actions.
I never could have guessed the answer to that question.
She never could have believed what she saw.
He never could have won the race without proper training.

Show examples from the web [+]

We never could afford one of our own.
We never could have found him so quickly without your help.
We never could've finished the greenhouse if Casey hadn't given us that money.
We never could've pulled off a party like this in my day.
We never could get that hair to stay in place, could we?
All those years we tried to have children And we never could.
But alas, we never could revive Yatsko.
Without help, we never could've built this room.
These are things we never could have imagined a few years ago.
No, we never could have come this far
It was the life that we never could have had.
But now we have opportunities to back each other up in ways we never could before.
And all this administrative data can be pulled together and processed to understand human behavior in a way we never could before.
Then we found her, and I knew something had frightened the poor dear, but we never could get her to tell us what it was.
And that's something we never could've done in the first movie.
Again, we never could have had this in the first movie.
It has to do with a related dopamine agonist... but it's still something we never could have anticipated.
In the age of big data, we can measure the world in ways we never could before.
You see, because the text was written in both Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics, we were able to translate things we never could before.
To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could.

Alternatives:

We could never
We were never able to
We never managed to
We never succeeded in
We never accomplished

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

"We could never"

This phrase is also used to express the inability to do something in the past. It emphasizes the fact that the action was never achievable.

Examples:

We could never have completed the task without your support.
They could never have foreseen the consequences of their actions.
I could never have imagined such a beautiful place.
She could never have anticipated the outcome.
He could never have achieved his goals without dedication.

Show examples from the web [+]

We could never get Livestrong 3000.
We could never really think that This was truly our own world.
We could never make up for what you did.
We could never be together if you're going to work for him.
We could never work out what that was.
We could never figure out his trigger, only that he's trying to make a statement.
We could never be married, you and I.
We could never have a life together on Earth, Chris.
She's an entirely different species, we could never...
And unfortunately, because of my phobias, we could never be physically intimate.
You said we could never negotiate from weakness.
That's why we could never be married.
I know we-we look like boat people, but we could never own a boat.
I'm sure you'll bring him the best doctors, the specialists we could never afford.
It's a four, and a nine, we could never work out what that was.
Possible, but we could never find a plant to actually prove it.
Wondered if he was popping pills, too, but we could never find any evidence.
We could never understand your brutality.
We could never have done it alone.
We could never come back here, Adriana.

Alternatives:

We never could
We were never able to
We never managed to
We never succeeded in
We never accomplished

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We never could vs We could never

"We never could"

"We could never"

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