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Can you end a sentence with "even", or is considered incorrect?

  • He even smiled at me.
  • He smiled at me, even.
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  • I mean in the sense I use it here. Not "The number two is even." ;-)
    – Bart Louwers
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 22:56
  • Yes, you're second sentence above is OK (by me, at least). May cause some Pists to be pisst, however.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 22:59
  • Yes, you can. Don't abuse it, though.
    – Ricky
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 23:04
  • I literally can't even!
    – Mitch
    Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 23:41
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    What @choster said. Go here: youtube.com/watch?v=6CAf5i4TEA0
    – deadrat
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 0:20

1 Answer 1

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Even is an adverb, so yes you could. However, I wouldn't intentionally try to use the word to add emphasis since there is an abundance of words that add emphasis without the possibility of confusing the reader.

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    Yeah, but what if you're writing dialogue?
    – Ricky
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 0:38
  • @Ricky In that case, I wouldn't really know how to write such a sentence. Wish someone could post a sentence; it would be pretty cool to see.
    – Le Sunstrike
    Commented Oct 20, 2015 at 2:22
  • @Ricky If you're writing dialogue you can put anything you like. Because it's reported speech any grammatical errors are the speaker's, not yours. Even if the speaker is a character you've invented it is still clear that the form of speech is part of your characterisation.
    – BoldBen
    Commented Oct 6, 2016 at 7:12

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