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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary
"Often used to not..."
Hi. I guess I should at least explain a bit about where this question comes from.
I'm currently studying English. While we were correcting some exercises in class we came across this one. The lesson was about "I used to" and "I used not to/I didn't use to":
"I often ( ) speak to my parents for days."
We had to complete the sentense as we saw fit. Everybody wrote "used not to/didn't use to" (the person was talking about her past and what she did when she was angry at her parents) but I wrote "used to not". Everyone thought that I just messed up the order of "not" and "to", but I tried to explain that in my opinion it is valid or correct (in certain cases) to use "I used to not do something", and that that "often" was clear evidence ("I often didn't use to speak to my parents" doesn't sound right to me). Our teacher was a bit doubthful but in the end she said that the answer was what everyone else wrote. She has been wrong a few times before and I was hoping if any of you could help me out with this. Thank you.
I'm currently studying English. While we were correcting some exercises in class we came across this one. The lesson was about "I used to" and "I used not to/I didn't use to":
"I often ( ) speak to my parents for days."
We had to complete the sentense as we saw fit. Everybody wrote "used not to/didn't use to" (the person was talking about her past and what she did when she was angry at her parents) but I wrote "used to not". Everyone thought that I just messed up the order of "not" and "to", but I tried to explain that in my opinion it is valid or correct (in certain cases) to use "I used to not do something", and that that "often" was clear evidence ("I often didn't use to speak to my parents" doesn't sound right to me). Our teacher was a bit doubthful but in the end she said that the answer was what everyone else wrote. She has been wrong a few times before and I was hoping if any of you could help me out with this. Thank you.
Top answer
I advocate "used not to speak". This sounds better to me than "used to not speak". "didn't use to speak" may be just about tolerable in speech, but it looks horrible written down, in my opinion.
- I advocate "used not to speak".
- This sounds better to me than "used to not speak".
- "didn't use to speak" may be just about tolerable in speech, but it looks horrible written down, in my opinion.
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5 Answers
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I advocate "used not to speak". This sounds better to me than "used to not speak".
"didn't use to speak" may be just about tolerable in speech, but it looks horrible written down, in my opinion.
"didn't use to speak" may be just about tolerable in speech, but it looks horrible written down, in my opinion.
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... and, by the way, there is also the perennial question of whether it should be "didn't use to" or "didn't used to" (which are hard to distinguish in speech). As far as I can gather from previous discussions here and elsewhere, the majority opinion is in favour of the former, though some authorities accept both. Since I do not understand the basis on which the idiomatic expression "used to" is t
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Thanks for answering.
What about that "often" though? Doesn't it imply that there should be something affirmative after it? Is "I often didn't use to speak to them for days" correct?
I want to make clear that I don't think this is always a valid option, just in this case, considering the "often" and the fact that this person used to not speak to her
What about that "often" though? Doesn't it imply that there should be something affirmative after it? Is "I often didn't use to speak to them for days" correct?
I want to make clear that I don't think this is always a valid option, just in this case, considering the "often" and the fact that this person used to not speak to her
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AnonymousWhat about that "often" though?The presence or absence of "often" does not affect my previous answers.
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AnonymousI wrote "used to not". Everyone thought that I just messed up the order of "not" and "to",They were correct. You did. See and the other link there.
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