so I was walking to a very nice place in Berlin today only to find it empty yet again. I was asking myself why this is... and now I am confused.
Which of the following forms of asking are correct? Which are proper English sentences and which are not grammatically correct? Finally which is the best choice (if that doesn't depend on opinion):
a) Why isn't there ever anyone?
b) Why is there never anyone?
c) Why is no one ever there?
c1) Why is there never no one?
d) Why is there never someone?
e) Why isn't there no one ever?
f) Why isn't there ever someone?
I am obviously not a native, so please don't be too focused on words order (or edit the question if need be)... I really want to know what would be the best combination of words?
Answer
You need to disambiguate the word there. In sentence c. it is an adverb of place, whereas in all the other sentences it is the dummy subject. In fact, my native-speaker ears find sentences with both theres better. My preference would be for:
- a) Why isn't there ever anyone there?
or, best of all:
- b) Why is there never anyone there?
Sentence c. also sounds ok:
- c) Why is no one ever there?
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