Timeline for "Didn't use to get" or "Didn't used to get"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 17, 2016 at 14:41 | comment | added | supercat | @AlanCarmack: The phrase "Didn't yoosta" would not qualify as formal English whether yoosta is spelled "used to" or "use to". I would suggest readers would be less likely to recognize "use to" as a spelling for yoosta, and would regard that as an argument favoring "used to". Grammar rules are best viewed as a tool which generally helps make things understandable; in cases where the grammatical rules would not serve that purpose, they should be overridden. | |
| Aug 17, 2016 at 7:18 | comment | added | Alan Carmack | This answer is fine. Ignore the pedantic welcome you got. The only thing this answer is missing is a comment by @BillJ saying that didn't used to is incorrect. | |
| Aug 17, 2016 at 7:01 | comment | added | supercat | I agree with your view that English has a single word pronounced "yoostoo" or "yoosta" whose spelling includes a word space. The pronunciation of the infinitive form is generally the same as for the past tense form, and changing the spelling for the infinitive form is unlikely to help a reader correctly parse the sentence. A reader may balk at "The shampoo I didn't used to use to wash my hair", but would probably grasp the meaning faster than "The shampoo I didn't use to use to wash my hair". | |
| Aug 17, 2016 at 6:45 | comment | added | P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica | Welcome to ELL and thank you for your answer. Remember: our objective is to help new learners to master the very difficult English language. If you provide references to support novel theories of grammar and construction (e.g., that the phrase used to is "word" which comprises two words!) they will be more useful. The community will vote on your answer's usefulness. | |
| Aug 17, 2016 at 6:28 | review | First posts | |||
| Aug 17, 2016 at 6:44 | |||||
| Aug 17, 2016 at 6:25 | history | answered | David Farthing | CC BY-SA 3.0 |