一直 / 始终 / 从来【yìzhí / shǐzhōng / cónglái】

一直, 始终 and 从来 all say something held over a stretch of time, and all go after the subject and before the verb. 一直 is the everyday word, 始终 says nothing changed from start to finish, and 从来 looks back over your whole experience and is nearly always negative.

一直 – from a point onwards

一直 doesn't need the stretch of time to have a clear start. It works for the past, the present and the future, and it can run up to a time with 到. With directions it means "straight on".

始终 – start to finish, unchanged

始终 covers the whole of a period that has a beginning and an end, and stresses that nothing shifted inside it – an attitude, a silence, a belief. It is more written than 一直, and it can't look ahead to the future or run up to a time with 到.

• × 明天我始终在家 → 明天我一直在家
• × 我们始终聊到十二点 → 我们一直聊到十二点

从来 – never, up to now

从来 takes a negative. 从来不 is for habits and choices; 从来没(有)…过 is for something that has never happened.

A positive 从来 needs 都 or 就 after it: 他从来都是这样 "he's always been like this". Without them it sounds unfinished.

• × 我从来喝咖啡 → 我一直喝咖啡
• × 我从来没去上海 → 我从来没去过上海