"We are very sorry that your disk never arrived"

[BluTac]

Doesn't sound quite right to me. Shouldn't it be "We are very sorry that your disk didn't arrive" or "We are sorry you didn't receive your disk" ?

Bump?

I think 'didn't' would sound better but 'never' is OK.

So it is correct but could have been written better?

Shouldn't it be disc?

It should have been disc........??

Yeah the "disk" bit was my mistake

Ahh, in which case I'd go for "disc did not arrive" (not didn't).

Why did not? Just because it sounds better, or another reason?

actually i think disc and disk are both acceptable

disk normally refers to a computer disk

In this case it's a DVD, perhaps I'm redeemed then?

"did not" is just my pedantic preference!

I was assuming you meant computer disk - my DH did receive one today.

But why is it disk for computer and disc for cd/dvd?

this explains the difference
So I was wrong, but still think "never arrived" sounds not quite right

i think it used to be disk, originally

then, when people got all clever and started going back to latin roots etc they decided that disc was proper, and started using that

then, when computers were invented the Americans (IBM specifically iirc) started using disk again

Back to the OP - to me it sounds as if something is missing. Maybe there should be a 'has', as in 'We are sorry that your disc has never arrived'.

I think maybe it sounds wrong because it has undertones of a small guilty child "You stole a cookie" - "No I never"

Personally I don't think it's all that exceptionable but saying "never" can only really apply to a process or a hypothetical event, not a single real one. This sentence is sort of saying that the disk arrived... never. Which doesn't make sense. You could say "Disks from X company never arrive" like you can say it never rains in the Atacama Desert, but to identify one instance of an event and then say it never happened it inherently contradictory.

never is correct because it has been given several chances to arrive (ie the postman came every day), but because of the sloppy use of never to mean didn't, I would avoid it - did not arrive is the neatest and best-looking way of putting it.

Grimma - it's the norm in Estuary English.

My automatic response now when I hear "never" is "didn't" - DH does it ALL THE TIME and it drives me nutty .

nickel, yes, that's what I mean! That's why it sounds wrong to me.

I thought didn't is only acceptable in written speech. Otherwise it should be did not. Though I may have just had an over-zealous English teacher!

But never arrived does not sound quite right to me. And I would prefer them to apologise rather than be sorry. But again I am just a bit fussy...