Talk:well, I never

Move to Well, I never!

I suggest moving this entry to Well, I never!. The exclamation mark and initial capitalization are vital to the idiom. Nothing can proceed the "well" in a sentence (except, possibly, an ellipse), and putting anything after "never" changes its meaning. Exclamation is also required. Even if you say it without raising your voice, it must still be said with emphasis. Oh, and the comma is just proper grammar. Thoughts? –Gunslinger47 04:53, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

The convention for expressions is to use a lower case initial letter and no final punctuation because those parts can vary. Consider these examples:

• (opening a gift box that has shocking contents) Thank you for the thoughtful... well, I never!
• Well I never, ever, ever!

Does that explain adequately why the convention is lower-case and no trailing punctuation? Rod (A. Smith) 08:08, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

The exclamation mark still seems to be present invariably, but I suppose that's why the word is defined as "an exclamation of great surprise". I concede on the capitalization and trailing punctuation. However, the comma should be used according to proper grammar. Google shows about a 50% inclusion rate for the comma, but it should be no surprise that not everyone speaks with perfect grammar. Perhaps this article should be moved to well, I never, with a redirect from well I never? –Gunslinger47 23:44, 19 July 2006 (UTC)

Since the two forms are pretty closely split in Google, which is more common in print? Rod (A. Smith) 07:03, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

The comma is present in most print occurrences. [1] As I said, including the comma is proper grammar, so it makes sense that publications would include it, due to the editing process they go through. Currently, well, I never redirects to well I never. Should it be made the other way around? –Gunslinger47 18:25, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I've moved it, Gunslinger's arguments seem persuasive, and I doubt if anyone will strongly object. Kappa 23:40, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Americanism?

I note this is labeled »dated, US, Canada«, but it seems to have been more prevalent in British English; in the Google Books corpora, it occurs about twice as frequently in the British English corpus as the American English corpus at any given point in time. cf. American English vs British English.

Eh, I’ll just change it. Vorziblix (talk) 18:50, 14 February 2016 (UTC)

well I never (did)!

well I never (did)! --Backinstadiums (talk) 18:09, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

Also variants such as why, I never. JMGN (talk) 12:09, 21 August 2023 (UTC)