***** NOT A TEACHER
*****
1. Michael Swan in his 1995 edition of
Practical English Usage (entry #577 on page 604):
"In an informal style, it is more common to use ordinary question and negative forms with auxiliary
do.
Did you use to play football at school? I
didn't use to like opera, but now I do. These forms are not often written; when they are, they are sometimes spelt
did ... used to and
didn't used to;
many people consider these spellings incorrect [my emphasis]."
2.
ASTONISHING discovery.
a. Bryan A. Gardiner is considered by SOME people to be the top authority in American English. I had assumed that he would agree with almost all American authorities that the negative is formed like any other verb after "do."
I was wrong.
Here is his OPINION in his 1998 edition of
A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. (I do not know whether he has changed his tune in later editions.)
He says that "used to" is a phrase that means "formerly."
Thus, he claims that the correct form is "We didn't use
d to think of politics in quite these terms."
All of my other American books disagree with him. I am guessing that he will be forced to change his views, if he hasn't already done so.
James