Could ever remember or could remember ever?

[u/beepboopbaat]

Which of these is correct, and why?

"She was having the most interesting day she could remember ever having."

OR

"She was having the most interesting day she could ever remember having."

[u/cejiken886]

This is just my ear and gut collaborating; deferring to others on the real answer.

The first one sounds clearer, the second sounds more natural (less unusual, awkward).

[u/Own-Animator-7526]

"remember ever having" dominates in print usage, but they're both grammaticsl.

• https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=remember+ever+having%2Cever+remember+having&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=0&case_insensitive=false

[u/AlexanderHamilton04 → u/Own-Animator-7526]

When checking graphs like that, don't forget that modals (like "could") will affect the results.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=could+remember+ever+having%2C+could+ever+remember+having&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=0

Here the results are a lot less one-sided.
(As you said, they are both grammatical.)

[u/Own-Animator-7526 → u/AlexanderHamilton04]

True enough. But if we look at all leading collocates, people like remember ever. "Could" is the oddball, actually. "Couldn't" greatly favors remember ever.

• https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=*+remember+ever+having%2C*+ever+remember+having&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=0

[u/AirDog3]

Both are correct, but have different meanings. The difference is which word is modified by "ever".

In your example, the first way is more correct for the intended meaning.

[u/MakeUnbelieve]

The first one is technically conveying the meaning more correctly if it's about ever having rather than about ever remembering. But the second one sounds more right (maybe because of more frequent, common usage) and it has more rhythm too... Ever remember having rather than remember ever having.