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Garner’s Modern English Usage (4th edition) acknowledges didn’t used to as “fully accepted” (Stage 5) and notes that it was almost twice as common in journalist
by swatcoder 4y ago
Garner’s Modern English Usage (4th edition) acknowledges didn’t used to as “fully accepted” (Stage 5) and notes that it was almost twice as common in journalistic usage.
There’s long been open debate among linguists about what might be formally more correct, but with sound arguments on both sides. It mostly comes down to grammatical rule vs idiomatic phrase with a strong validating history.
That said, he suggests never used to as a way to escape the grammar debate while still keeping used.
- eCa 4y agoBut does ”never used to” really mean the same as ”didn’t use to”? ”Unix never used to support shebang” almost makes it seem like it just happened.
- johnday 4y agoYeah, it's different: "Didn't use(d) to [...]" means that there was a time where it did not [...]; whereas "Never used to" means that at every previous time it did not [...].