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About "used to", I've only ever learnt (and taught) that this was used to talk about past states, habits or conditions which are now finished, in affirmative sentences ("I used to play in the park"). In negative and interrogative sentences, which require auxiliaries and therefore a "base form" of the lexical verb, you can express the "past habit" part with adverbs such as "never", "usually", "always" etc. ("I didn't usually play in the park", "I never played in the park", "Did you always play in the park"?).



No, those sentences would express a different meaning, Marianna.

I didn't usually play in the park.
I didn't use to play in the park.

The first sentence simply refers to a past habit, while the second contrasts it with the present -- I didn't use to play in the park (but now I do).

It's ok to have 'used to' in negatives and interrogatives, though 'never used to' is probably more common than 'didn't use to'.

I never used to watch TV so much.
I didn't use to watch TV so much.

Never used to probably contrasts the present with the whole of my past life, while didn't use to might contrast the present with a particular past period in my life .

I suspect that used to is more common in negative questions than positive ones:

Didn't you use to have a motorbike?

But that is more a matter of semantics than grammar. We are more likely to want to contrast past and present states/habits in a negative question than in a positive one.

Bingley