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Re: used to
Chris Croughton (chris@keristor.net) 2005/07/05 09:53

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From: Chris Croughton <chris@keristor.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: used to
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 16:53:30 +0100
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On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:40:00 GMT, Bob Cunningham
   <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 18:48:11 +0100, Chris Croughton
> <chris@keristor.net> said:
>
>> I don't believe "usedn't" is a word in English at all <g>.
>
> But it is.
>
> It's in _Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary_:

It may be in American, I said that I don't believe it's English <g>.

>      Main Entry: usedn't
>      Variant:or usen't [...]
>      chiefly Britain   : used not
>
> Not that I, for one, would ever say it.

I might say (and have certainly heard) "he used not to live there", but
it's not very common ("he used to not live there" being a lot more
common).

Chris C

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