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I recently had a request by someone to explain the difference between “always” and “forever” so that’s what I’d like to do today.

The word “forever” is used when we want to say that something will last for all time. In other words, it will never end. For example:

I will love you forever.

There will forever be distrust between Bill and me.

People have been killing each other in wars forever.

As you can see from my examples, we can use this for both past and future situations.

We can also use “always” to explain these types of situations, but the word “forever” is more formal and dramatic while “always” is more for everyday conversation. For example:

I will always love you.

There will always be distrust between Bill and me.

People have always killed each other in wars.

However, we can also use “always” in other situations. It can be used when we want to say that there is a certain condition which is true every time something happens. For example:

When I get home from work, my husband is always watching TV.

I always get annoyed when I’m on a crowded train.

We can also use it to describe the state of a person or thing in general when it never changes. For example:

Sarah is always happy. I really envy her.

The traffic light on Main Street is always broken. I don’t understand why they don’t fix it.