Are ‘whensoever’ and ‘whenever’ really the same?
In some of the dictionaries I checked, ‘whensoever’ is defined ‘whenever’; but I disagree.
For instance, I think ‘The students may leave whenever they so choose’ can be written ‘[...] whensoever they choose’ because ‘so’ is already part of ‘whensoever’.
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i never heard anybody saying 'whensoever' but yea they are the same for sure!
Whensoever is according to my dictionary an adverb that means whenever, but it is obsolete. The last time it was used by an English writer was by Shakespeare.
There are a lot of Shakespearean words that are obsolete.
I feel they are the same thing, except that 'whensoever' feels more old-fashioned.