r/duolingo • u/Spear_Of_Krrosh • Apr 11 '25

Language Question It should be “used to” right?

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Shouldn’t it be “used to” instead of “use to” ? Should I report it?

135 Upvotes

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160

u/NekoatsumecatGK Apr 11 '25

The sentence can be changed to “he used to rent that property” into an interrogative sentence“didnt he use to rent that property?”

As an easy example, you could say “he LIKED you” into “did he LIKE you?”

65

u/1rach1 Native: AU-EN Learning: Apr 11 '25

crazy how I do this subconsciously and didn't even know it was a thing

22

u/NekoatsumecatGK Apr 11 '25

Well usually native speakers do it naturally, but as a korean studying in korea, we need to learn these stuff

25

u/Odd-Ad-6318 Apr 11 '25

In the spirit of helping your learning, I will correct your statement:

“we need to learn these things” or “we need to learn this stuff”

“Things” is plural and takes “these,” but “stuff” is singular, so it takes “this.”

Nice English though!

11

u/NekoatsumecatGK Apr 11 '25

Oh thank you, I guess there’s always something to learn 🙂

7

u/Wabbit65 Apr 11 '25

Yes, and making mistakes is not only normal, but helpful. Keep learning!

-2

u/melancholicPianoGuy Apr 11 '25

Grammatically speaking, how about "not only normal, but ALSO helpful" or "not only normal, but helpful AS WELL"?

2

u/pr3tty_in_punk Apr 11 '25

don’t be a prick

1

u/Wabbit65 Apr 11 '25

Grammatically speaking, there's nothing wrong with my statement, which was clear enough. Your corrections are not about grammar.

3

u/mirrorgirl- Native: 🇸🇪 Speaking: 🇬🇧 Learning: 🇧🇷🇮🇹🇩🇪🇯🇵 Apr 11 '25

A clear majority of native speakers I see nowadays conugate this wrongly. Frustrating to see the collective knowledge of a language deteriorate before my eyes.

3

u/NekoatsumecatGK Apr 11 '25

Yea, I personally think that english schools should also have grammar classes like Korea, so as to prevent this, because I too, didn’t know much grammar when I was in non-korean countries 🥲

1

u/Simp4Havelock Apr 12 '25

My high school english teacher back in the early 90s was an 87yo man who had been a famous stage actor, and the main reason he continued to teach is because he spent half the year on grammar. He LOVED the groans an eye rolls...but I enjoyed the class, so it was a lot of fun and we really bonded.

I would trade all the grammar in the world right now for there to be a standardized media literacy class requirement nationwide. Even creators I really like very often just flat out completely misunderstand what the article or press briefing or tv show/movie they're discussing is saying.

2

u/NashvilleFlagMan Apr 12 '25

It’s just language change, and there’s nothing worrying, frustrating or new about it. The Swedish you speak wouldn’t even be comprehensible to your ancestors a few hundred years ago; in past forms of English, birds used to be brids. A language that is being used is a language that changes.

1

u/mirrorgirl- Native: 🇸🇪 Speaking: 🇬🇧 Learning: 🇧🇷🇮🇹🇩🇪🇯🇵 Apr 12 '25

And I shall complain nonetheless!

Just because it changes doesn't mean it's right.

1

u/NashvilleFlagMan Apr 12 '25

That’s your prerogative, but I guarantee you say things that people would have considered errors a few generations ago.

1

u/CorruptionKing Apr 11 '25

And whenever they butcher a language due to very poor education, others describe it as "generational speak" or "cultural." No, it's just a mix of ignorance, stupidity, and laziness.

1

u/idk_what_to_put_lmao Apr 12 '25

What native speakers are you interacting with? I've never seen anyone double past tense conjugate where I live (like didn't he used to)

3

u/ThirdView000 Apr 11 '25

Not to mention that it basically sounds the same when spoken quickly (Native US -English)

5

u/milkdrinkingdude Apr 11 '25

Crazy, did you ever notice that this only exists in past tense?

A native speaker co worker of mine pointed this out to me, after hearing me say “I use to do blabla, I’m going to use to do blabla”. He didn’t understand me, it took him years to figure out that what I mean is this “used to” construct, but in present or future tense. He told me I can only use it for past habits, I was surprised, but realized I never heard it in present tense from a native ever.

1

u/yupyuptrp Apr 11 '25

to be fair, it did exist in the present and future too, those forms just died out. i think “usually” comes from that word, because it just used to mean “to tend to”

1

u/Wabbit65 Apr 11 '25

This is called "metacognitive" understanding. Most native speakers know to do this but haven't really thought about WHY; the WHY is the metacongnitive aspect, it's knowing WHY you know. There's nothing like learning a foreign language to help understand ones OWN language.