LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

  Dr. Irvin Yalom has answered my question about why he wrote "Did she used to..." in his The Schopenhauer Cure . The correct form is "Did she use to..?" and the answer to the "error" is a phonetical one: The sound of the "t" blends with "use" to make it sound "used" and inadvertedly people fall into this grammatical ditch. A liaison that may sound far-fetched, but which is not. Try it.  This answer does satisfy me.  And I thank Dr. Yalom for his quick reply. 

  I have  discovered the life and work of Dr.  Irvin D. Yalom , eminent M.D. and fascinating writer. Currently I am reading his  The Schopenhauer Cure    and    When Nietzsche Wept , which I am enjoying, and which I venture to recommend. Dr. Yalom  is a bit pedantic, which I love, of course (welcome to the club!), and I suspect he dips into all kinds of dictionaries (as we all should) in order to pick the right word to discribe his thinking and his chracters' ideas. But... I stumbled into this sentence: "How did she used to do it?" which made me prick up my ears. To use  is a regular verb:  I use a knife to cut bread with. People used stones but now they use toilet paper . This is fine. Used to , however, means an action repeated in the past, habitual at a given time:  I used to to walk but now I don´t . Usually  =  suelo : Suelo ir al cine, I usually go to the movies. Used to  =  solía : Solía ir al cine, I...

I usually get up at ten (Every day.) I used to get up at ten (No longer.) I am getting used to getting up at ten (acquiring the habit.) We forget that Spansih also has defective verbs (anomalous finites) and in this case we will employ soler to translate the above. Soler has a present and a past : Suelo levantarme a las diez. Solía levantarme a las diez. Me estoy acostumbrando a levantarme a las diez. And we have solved the problem. Easy as pie.

I recently discovered the life and work of Dr. Irvin D. Yalom , eminent M.D. and fascinating writer. Currently I am reading his The Schopenhauer Cure , a novel, which I I am enjoying and which I venture to recommend. Dr. Yalom is a bit pedantic, which I love, of course (welcome to the club!), and I suspect he dips into all kinds of dictionaries (as we all should) in order to use the right word to discribe his thinking and his chracters' ideas. But... I stumbled into this sentence: "How did she used to do it?" which made me prick up my ears. To use is a regular verb: I use a knife to cut bread with. People used stones but now they use toilet paper . This is fine. Used to , however, means an action repeated in the past, habitual at a given time: I used to to walk but now I don´t . Usually = suelo : Suelo ir al cine, I usually go to the movies. Used to = solía : Solía ir al cine, I used to go to the movies. However the verb is still "to use" and Dr...