‘Always’ and ‘never’ with past tense verbs

“Always” and “never” can be used with a simple past tense verb, although they are more often used with verbs in the perfect tenses, the simple present tense or simple future tense.

Here are some examples of the use of these two adverbs with simple past tense verbs:

• “Ellie was always very good at art.” (example in Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2005)
• “I always thought I’d have children eventually.” (example in online Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary)
• “In those years we always did well against them in one-on-one games.”
• “He never went to university.” (Collins Cobuild English Grammar)
• “I never did that again,” he said.
• “He never did his homework in primary school, but always did well in exams.”