never did

[Bridget]

What is the difference in use between:

I never did get round to thanking you for all you help, did I?
I never got round to thanking you for all your help, did I?

[Runny]

In my opinion, the speaker of 01) tends to put an emphasize on what he/she never did. And 02) is what we usual order.

01) I never did get round to thanking you for all you help, did I?
02) I never got round to thanking you for all your help, did I?


What's more, inversion can be used for 01) like that, :)
Never did I get round to thanking...

[Pete]

What is the difference in use between:

I never did get round to thanking you for all you help, did I?
I never got round to thanking you for all your help, did I?
In my opinion, the speaker of 01) tends to put an emphasize on what he/she never did. And 02) is what we usual order.

01) I never did get round to thanking you for all you help, did I?
02) I never got round to thanking you for all your help, did I?


What's more, inversion can be used for 01) like that, :)
Never did I get round to thanking...

Just to supplement Runny's answer...
Because of the emphasis in the first sentence, you would tend to use it when you think that you really should have done what you didn't. It would be common to say it this way when you are apologizing for not doing it.

The second is a simple "matter of fact" statement. It sounds quite natural in Runny's example 2, as part of a question.

(I don't think that the "inverted" form shown in the earlier answer sounds very natural or would be commonly used. You would use inversion for extreme emphasis. For instance, a teacher might angrily admonish her students, "Never have I seen such rude behavior in my class!")