Hi, Sterk 09:27 Apr 5, 2012
You have raised more than one question here, and have so far received answers to the last, on your "castle" sentence. I would say that "the castle has not once been taken..." is perfectly OK, idiomatic and unambiguous. "Not once" means "never", here, but it is slightly more emphatic.
On your first question, I would say that "not once" will always be understood to mean "never" unless you add something: "not just once", or "not once but many times", for example. In both your first two examples, "not once" clearly means "never" and cannot mean "more than once". |