would never have or would have never?

Bambooplease help me on this word order issue. i am not sure which is grammatically correct.



I would never have done

or

I would have never done



thanks in advance,

bamboo [A]

Without context, it is a toss-up, a matter of choice. My personal preference is to put "never"

Both correct.

At the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com

Search with
"I would have never"
(quotation signs are important)
172 Results

"I would never have"
716 Results

I X2 would X1 have X3 done ...

Placement of never at X1 is most common by far; at X2, next most common; at X3, least common.

All are grammatically correct.

CJ

This is what Swan says too: he gives the preferred word order (never after the modal/would), and several others as possible.

Does anyone else think that there's a difference in placement based on whether or not you actually DID do it? Or at least, an implication of that? You can make sentences that mean each of the following using a different word order and vocal emphasis, but this is my first interpretation:

I never would have: If I had known you were returning from your trip on Thursday, I never would have ag

Grammar Geek,

My brain isn't getting the same reaction as you get from trying over those sentences, but I still think you may have something there. I just can't seem to focus in on what it is!

Grammar Geek,

Perhaps because you're making a connection between:

would not have
wouldn't have
would never have

by seeing them as negatives because of that n, present in all of them?

Eh, it was just a thought.

I ___ would _____ have _____ done that if I had known... (because I did, but wouldn't have otherwise) - where would you drop in the never? To me (and I admit, I'm not the most normal person around), it's either the first or the third, but for this purpose, not the second.

Actually they are all negatives and it's not because of the "n"...

Thank you maddy and

Emma of not being mean to me