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Anonymous Posted 18 years ago
Grammar
there did not used to be
Hi,
I thought when you have the auxiliary verb "didn't" what usually comes is a bare form of a verb but saw this? What kind of sentence arrangement is this? Why no bare form?
There didn't used to be a store.
Can we have this?
He/she didn't used to be + some word.
I thought when you have the auxiliary verb "didn't" what usually comes is a bare form of a verb but saw this? What kind of sentence arrangement is this? Why no bare form?
There didn't used to be a store.
Can we have this?
He/she didn't used to be + some word.
Top answer
I find the plain infinitive better in negative forms: I didn't use to like her. However, I didn't use d to like her is also considered correct in many dictionaries, such as the Collins Dictionary. This dictionary would prefer I used not to like her in formal contexts.
- I find the plain infinitive better in negative forms: I didn't use to like her.
- However, I didn't use d to like her is also considered correct in many dictionaries, such as the Collins Dictionary.
- This dictionary would prefer I used not to like her in formal contexts.
- As there never was a language academy in the Anglo-Saxon world, English is ripe with anomalies like this and there are heated discussions regarding their correctness.
- CB
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1 Answers
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I find the plain infinitive better in negative forms: I didn't use to like her. However, I didn't used to like her is also considered correct in many dictionaries, such as the Collins Dictionary. This dictionary would prefer I used not to like her in formal contexts.
As there never was a language academy in the Anglo-Saxon world, English is ripe with anomali
As there never was a language academy in the Anglo-Saxon world, English is ripe with anomali
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