milky  +  401901 Wed, 08 Aug 07 10:21 AM The old form of "used to" was did (or was). Folks would say such things as "Once, I did love her so ". I wonder what the negative form of that would have been? milky Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004 Senior Member 3,149 Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought". Negatives

	Doll  +  403132 Sat, 11 Aug 07 11:37 AM Once I did love her so= Once I loved her so.  First sentence just emphasize the verb.   I would write the negative form like this:   Once I didn't love her so.( Of course it sounds weird semantically.) Doll Joined on Sat, Mar 10 2007 Senior Member 2,806 Verbs, Negatives

	milky  +  403325 Sat, 11 Aug 07 09:54 PM  Doll wrote: Once I did love her so= Once I loved her so.  First sentence just emphasize the verb.   I would write the negative form like this:   Once I didn't love her so.( Of course it sounds weird semantically.) Thanks; Doll, but I was asking how it WAS written or said in the past, and not how you would say it. milky Verbs, Negatives

	MrPedantic  +  403354 Sat, 11 Aug 07 11:19 PM Is that indeed the "older form", Milky? I was under the impression that "use to" in that sense dated back at least to ME. MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 13,616 ...opella forensis / adducit febris...

	milky  +  403358 Sat, 11 Aug 07 11:59 PM  MrPedantic wrote: Is that indeed the "older form", Milky? I was under the impression that "use to" in that sense dated back at least to ME. MrP Which period of ME are you thinking of? As I understand it, I'm talking abou pre-1300. milky

	milky  +  403695 Sun, 12 Aug 07 09:18 PM  Forbes wrote: I never did love her so? or I did never love her so? That sounds like a comment on the present stae of a relationship, IMO. milky

	MrPedantic  +  403725 Sun, 12 Aug 07 10:44 PM  Milky wrote: Which period of ME are you thinking of? As I understand it, I'm talking abou pre-1300. Well, that would be Early ME. Do you have any pre-1300 examples of this usage? MrP MrPedantic

	milky  +  403730 Sun, 12 Aug 07 10:55 PM  MrPedantic wrote:  Milky wrote: Which period of ME are you thinking of? As I understand it, I'm talking abou pre-1300. Well, that would be Early ME. Do you have any pre-1300 examples of this usage? MrP Not to hand. Do you have any pre-1300 examples of "used to"? BTW; what's your take on the thread question regarding the negative form of  "I did (didst) love her so"? milky Negatives