This paper examines the distribution of the adverbs 'always' and 'never' across genre corpora in comparison to other frequency adverbs. Adopting a function-oriented approach, the aim of the paper is to stress their communicative and social functions and to bring out any changes in their meaning depending on the genre. The author claims that the context and the background knowledge guide our interpretations and/or expectations. Instances of always and never that exhibit exaggeration are appropriate in spoken language but avoided in formal written genres, which leads to the conclusion that exaggeration is associated with informality.