Question form of "used to" [Was: Did these words used to rhyme?]


Everyone who learnt English as L2 knows that it is not easy to turn an
English statement into a yes-no question. Unless the sentence already
uses a modal verb, "to have" or "to be" as the main verb, you have to
pull in the auxiliary verb "to do" and then invert the order to form
the question. (With modal verbs and "to have" or "to be", you can
simply invert the order.)


e.g. 1) I like it.
--> I _do_ like it. --> _Do_ I like it?

2) I liked it.
--> I _did_ like it. --> _Did_ I like it?

Still easy.

How about sentences that use the phrase "be used to"? OK. Just treat
it like any other sentence where the main verb is "to be":

3) He is used to drive to work. --> Is he used to drive to work.


Now, things become interesting when we try to consider the phrase
"used to". It is sort of past tense of "be used to". But it's so
strange that the above rules for forming question do not apply.

4) He used to drive to work. --> *Did he use to drive to work?

Doesn't seem to sound right. Should we treat "used to" as a model
verb, then? Let's try:

5) He used to drive to work. --> *Used he [to] drive to work?

Where you use the word "to" there, it still sound strange.


And what did the subject line of this thread say?

"Did these words used to rhyme?"

Using "did" with a past-tense form sound even stranger to me.
Assuming it's not a typo, does the original author treat "used" as the
infinitive form of a verb independent of "use"?


What do you think? Maybe, we have to resort to the following
(inspired by French)?

6) Is it true that he used to drive to work?

Any other suggestions?



--
Lee Sau Dan +Z05biGVm- +AH4-{@nJX6X+AH4-}

E-mail: danlee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Home page: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/+AH4-danlee
.

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