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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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another tiltable windmill for the rusty, blunted lance* of Ol' Scrib. (* Go ahead and have fun with that phrase, if you like. We need a chuckle or two.) oh, alright then.... "  " GOOD to have you back, dear scribbler!! We've missed you! 
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
Used to = formerly is not local usage, Scribbler. I hear "used to" to mean "formerly" more often than not.
There's nothing wrong with a blunted lance, is there? And what's Rusty got to do with this?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
"Use to (or 'used to'?), we would go over ter Aunt Jenny's twict a week." I believe that is just a shortened version of, "It used to be that we would go..." My dear, my dear--it is so very lovely to be graced by your words once again. If by lance you mean pen, then I must believe it has grown rusty and blunted through lack of use here. You have just cleaned and sharpened it a bit, and I know it will take very little effort to get that writing instrument in 'mighty' perfect working order once more. Oh, I have to say it again: how I love you!
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 10
stranger
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stranger
Joined: May 2000
Posts: 10 |
I once saw a textbook for an English language course in Hungary. It offered this usage: Usedn't you to to shopping twice weekly? Has anyone ever heard that one? Or was this just an invention of the textbook's author?
It makes perfect sense, but it strikes me as completely foreign.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328
enthusiast
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OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 328 |
Usedn't you to go shopping twice weekly? Good grief! I get brain stutter just trying to read that. I don't know what would happen if I actually tried to say it.
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
use toNot at all, Scribbler! I grew up in central New Jersey, and my ear always heard and I always said use rather than used. I never realized the awkwardness of it all until I wrestled with a line of a poem I was writing which read "boats use/used only to a shiver of glassen ripple on their reach of bay." Use falls on my ear correctly, but it just doesn't fit in written form, or the linquistically formal diction of the piece for that matter. I settled on used, but it still never sounds quite write to me. But I guess I'll get use to it!
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Usedn't you to to shopping - - -
This construction is by no means unusual in UK.
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