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always used to
Michael Swan, in Practical English Usage, says that the following forms are possible in an informal English style.
"I always used to be afraid of dogs." "I used to always be afraid of dogs." But, does anyone here use them or come across them?
Dolly,
Maybe, but have you seen them in real life, or are you just asking pointless questions? Just so you know, I don't monitor my use of the language that much.
Those are current usages in informal North American English, I must say myself.
<Maybe, but have you seen them in real life, or are you just asking pointless questions? >
Where did you learn to be so rude?
<Those are current usages in informal North American English, I must say myself. >
Many thanks for such a direct and polite answer, Travis.
Both forms are used very often in English, both in informal situations between people and also on TV, in the media, etc in all varieties of English.
But what is the function of the adverb "always" there? Doesn't "used to" alone carry the meaning?
"I always used to be afraid of dogs." "I used to be afraid of dogs." (Same meaning.)
I have a question related to the topic.
In "used to", "used" is the past form of the verb "use". Therefore, normally, a well-formed question would be "Did you use to be afraid of dogs?". But it seems that what's written in reality is not "Did you use to" but "Did you used to". This is not a problem when we speak because the "d" of "used" and the "t" of "to" merge into the same consonnant, so we say "use to" the same way as we say "used to". But in written English, this should not be acceptable. It's found, though. What do you think of it? What do you write? "Did you use to" or "Did you used to" ?
I favor "used to", because in more careful speech here you can actually hear (and I myself have) ["just:u:] or, even more carefully, ["ju:st:u:], indicating that there is an underlying /tt/ or /dt/ cluster present.
Even in "careful" speech, I've never heard a cluster. Must be a US thing.
Hey, is this ungrammtical?
"Didn't you used to live in Paris?" -- It is according to that page.. ": : Didn't you used to - how wrong is that??? I hear it all the time on the media.. : It's ungrammatical but popular in casual speech." http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/46/messages/985.html
In British English, it's pronounced "usetah", IMO, in careful and "careless" speech.
;-)
I think I pronounce both "use to" and "used to" as ["just@] in casual speech, and both as ["ju:stu] in more careful speech. I do distinguish them in writing, though.
I sometimes say "always used to", but I don't think I say "used to always", myself. It is indeed a bit redundant, although the "always" can be used for emphasis if you stress it.
- Kef |