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From: "Mike Lyle" <mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: used to
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2005 22:42:37 +0100
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Chris Croughton wrote:
[...]
> 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).
Interesting example of the common American preference for the "split
infinitive": Brits who don't know or care about the difference would
almost always say "used not to live" -- though I'm sure "didn't use
to live" would be the usual spoken form. "To not [do]" generally
appears in BrE only for special emphasis.
--
Mike.
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