tā cónglái bù jìde gěi qīnqi dǎ diànhuà, měicì dōu shì māma ràng tā dǎ.

从来不 means “never” in the sense of habit / behavior: he never does this as a habit, at any time.

• 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话
  → He never remembers to call his relatives (as a general pattern).

It’s stronger than “doesn’t usually” and implies at no time up to now, in general has he had this habit.

从来不 + Verb and 从来没(有) + Verb / Verb 过 are both translated as “never,” but they differ in focus and grammar:

1. 从来不 + Verb

   • Describes a general, habitual fact, usually including the present.
   • Often used with stative verbs (喜欢, 知道, 相信, 记得, etc.) or actions seen as a standing habit.
   • Example:
     
     • 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话。
       → He never remembers to call his relatives. (habit)

2. 从来没(有) + Verb / Verb 过

   • Describes no occurrence up to the present (experience / completed actions).
   • Often used with 过: 从来没去过，从来没见过.
   • Examples:
     
     • 他从来没给亲戚打过电话。
       → He has never called his relatives (not even once).
     • 我从来没有见过他。
       → I’ve never seen him.

Here, 记得 (“to remember”) is a state rather than a concrete action with a countable number of times, so 从来不记得 (never remembers, as a tendency) is natural.
从来没记得 sounds odd or very marked; native speakers wouldn’t normally say that.

Both involve “remembering,” but:

• 记得 focuses on whether you remember something (or not) at a certain time.

  • 我记得。= I remember.
  • 我不记得了。= I don’t remember anymore.

• 记住 focuses on successfully committing something to memory, often as a result of effort.

  • 你要记住我的话。= You must remember (and keep in mind) my words.
  • 他终于记住了密码。= He finally memorized the password.

In the sentence:

• 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话
  → The idea is: he never (manages to) remember to call his relatives at the time when he should.
  That’s about his state of memory / awareness, so 记得 is the natural choice.

If you said 记住, it would suggest “he never manages to memorize that he should call his relatives,” which feels off and unnatural here.

In 给亲戚打电话, 给 is functioning as a preposition meaning “to / for”, not “to give” in the literal sense.

The pattern is:

• 给 + person + 打电话
  = to call someone (on the phone), literally “make a phone call to someone.”

So:

• 给亲戚打电话 = call (one’s) relatives
• 给你打电话 = call you
• 给老板发邮件 = send an email to the boss

Here 给 marks the recipient of the action.

Both 给亲戚打电话 and 打电话给亲戚 are used in Mandarin and both are correct.

1. 给亲戚打电话

   • Structure: 给 + recipient + 打电话
   • Very common and natural in Mainland usage.
   • Slightly more neutral/natural in everyday speech.

2. 打电话给亲戚

   • Structure: 打电话 + 给 + recipient
   • Also correct and widely understood.
   • Often heard in Taiwan and in some speakers’ personal habits.

In your sentence, 给亲戚打电话 just reflects a common Mainland word order preference. The meaning is the same: “call (his) relatives.”

You can’t drop 打 here; 打电话 is a set verb-object phrase meaning “to make a phone call.”

• 打 (dǎ) here means “to make (a call / a phone call).”
• 电话 (diànhuà) = “telephone / phone call.”

So:

• 打电话 = to call (on the phone)
• 给亲戚打电话 = to make a phone call to (his) relatives

Saying 他从来不给亲戚电话 sounds wrong or at best very unnatural. It would literally read like “he never gives his relatives a phone,” which is not the intended meaning.

To say “call someone,” you need something like:

• 给 + someone + 打电话
• or 打电话给 + someone

每次都 emphasizes that every single time, without exception, the same thing happens.

• 每次 = every time
• 都 = “all / each (of them)”; when used with things like 每次, 每个人, etc., it stresses “every”.

So:

• 每次都 是妈妈让他打
  → Every time, it’s his mom who tells him to call.

If you said:

• 每次是妈妈让他打

it’s grammatically OK, but it loses some of the “every single time, without exception” emphasis. 都 strengthens that idea.

Here 是 does act as a form of “to be,” but it also serves an emphatic / focusing role.

• Structure:
  
  • 每次 都 是 妈妈 让 他 打。
  • “Each time, it is (indeed) mom who makes him call.”

This is similar to saying in English:

• “Every time, it’s mom who makes him call.”

The 是 helps highlight or contrast 妈妈 as the one responsible (and not him on his own initiative, and not somebody else).

If you drop 是:

• 每次都妈妈让他打

This is ungrammatical; you need either 是 or some other structure. The 是 is necessary here to link “every time” with “(it’s) mom who…” and make the sentence flow naturally.

In 妈妈让他打, 让 is a causative verb meaning something like “to tell / have / make (someone do something).”

Structure:

• A 让 B + Verb + (Object)
  = A causes / asks / tells B to do something.

Here:

• 妈妈 = A (the causer)
• 他 = B (the person doing the action)
• 打 (电话) = the action

So 妈妈让他打 (电话) = “Mom tells him to call / has him call / makes him call.”

Meaning range of 让:

• Can be soft: “ask, have (someone do something)”
• Or stronger: “make / force” (depending on context and tone).

It is not “let” in the sense of “allow” here. For “allow,” Chinese can also use 让, but context decides:

• 妈妈不让我出去。= Mom doesn’t let me go out. (doesn’t allow)
• 妈妈让我出去买菜。= Mom asks me to go out and buy groceries. (tells / has me)

It’s complete in Chinese because the object (电话) is understood from context and can be dropped.

Earlier in the sentence, we already have:

• 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话
  → The action “call (on the phone)” is fully specified.

So in the second part:

• 每次都是妈妈让他打

Native speakers automatically understand 打 = 打电话 in this context. Chinese often omits repeated elements when they’re clear:

• 我吃了苹果，他没吃。
  → “I ate the apple, he didn’t (eat [it]).”
• 我去过中国，他没去过。
  → “I’ve been to China, he hasn’t (been).”

So the final 打 is not incomplete; it’s a natural ellipsis.

You cannot omit the second 他 here; each 他 has a distinct role:

• First 他: subject of the whole sentence.

  • 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话
  • “He never remembers to call his relatives.”

• Second 他: object of 让 (the one being made / told to act).

  • 妈妈让他打
  • “Mom tells him to call.”

If you removed the second 他:

• ✗ 每次都是妈妈让打

This is ungrammatical because 让 would be missing its object (who is being made to do the calling). Chinese generally requires the person after 让 (unless context makes it extremely obvious and you’re using a very colloquial shorthand, which is not the case here).

The sentence describes a habitual pattern, not one-time completed events, so it stays in the “plain” form without 了 or 过:

Key markers of habit here:

• 从来不 → expresses a general, timeless tendency: “never (does this as a habit).”
• 每次都 → “every time” → repeated situations.

In Chinese, for habits / general truths, you usually don’t use 了 or 过:

• 我每天吃早饭。= I eat breakfast every day.
• 他星期天常常打篮球。= He often plays basketball on Sundays.

Similarly:

• 他从来不记得给亲戚打电话，每次都是妈妈让他打。

describes his usual behavior, not a specific completed event, so it naturally uses no aspect particle like 了 / 过.