This Didn't Use To Be A Problem
People are silly. I notice that Google gets more hits for "didn't used to be" than for "didn't use to be", and more hits for "didn't used to have" than for "didn't use to have."It reminds me of the time "I didn't ran to see what was the matter" and "he didn't wanted to buy anything."
More: I guess that apart from the phonic similarity of "used to" and "use to", another contributing factor to this error is that we never use "use to", in this intransitive sense, in the affirmative present or future tense. I do "run to see what is the matter," or "want to buy something," but I never say that I "use to cook spaghetti." So people don't have that example in their heads to extend to the negative past tense.
posted by Richard Mason @ Thursday, July 28, 2005
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