Get a Grip on Your Grammar: 250 Writing and Editing Reminders for the Curious or Confused by Kris Spisak

Author:Kris Spisak [Spisak, Kris]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2017-04-17T04:00:00+00:00

Writing Tip #142: “Use to” vs. “Used to”

Psst . . . I think you’ve forgotten a letter. Again.

• Remember, “used to” is a phrasing you use to discuss something that has already happened. Ergo, it is always in past tense: “used to.”

• In other instances, “use” and “to” can be friendly neighbors explaining that you can utilize something for the purpose of something else (see my earlier sentence).

This is all simple enough, you say. Thanks for the reminder, you say, but then comes the tricky part you might not have seen coming.

The form of “used to” changes if you’re posing a question. Didn’t you use to like magicians? Just like that, the required “d” disappears.

“Used to” also should lose the “d” when you’re using it in the negative. You didn’t use to think this was so complicated, did you?

And it’s not complicated really. There are simply a few specifics that you need to be aware of, specifics that probably roll off of your tongue naturally when you speak, but sometimes make your fingers stutter on the keyboard when you are typing.

However, that’s something that used to happen to you. Not anymore, right?

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