for the last fucking time

[rone]

"Didn't this used to be..." is WRONG. "Did" is past tense, so "used" need not be. "Didn't this use to be..." is the right way to write that. Hell, i even found this written wrong in American Gods.

Comments

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

"Used to" is an idiom, though. It does not conjugate.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Sheer poppycock. "I used to be a chef." "I did not use to be a crackwhore."

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

You were so a crackwhore!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Those pictures were Photoshopped, i tell you!

[therobbergirl.livejournal.com]

Look, no way could they have been Phtoshopped. For one thing, I use Paint Shop Pro. And for another, you were a crackwhore.

[stoneself.livejournal.com]

"used to" is a mistranscription of "use to" which when spoken sounds like "used to".

anyhow, my linguist friends tell me that by the time someone is complaining about anything being ungrammatical, it's too late (e.g. who/whom, regardless/irregardless, etc.). at this point the formerly ungrammatical form has become the current grammar. language isn't static; it changes. in fact my linguist friends claim that toddlers control change in grammar (so blame sesame street and barney) and that teens control change in metaphor, idiom, and vocabulary (blame mtv and substandard educations).

-- end geek