Hi teachers!!
What the different between the use of [color=blue]usedn’t to and [color=blue]usen’t to.
Is there any different between the two below?
He usedn’t to go there very often.
He usen’t to go there very often.
Thanks!!
Soklong
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Those forms “usedn’t to” and “usen’t to” show up in ESL books written by foreigners, but I had never heard or read them in my entire life until I heard a foreign English teacher say them. And since she said them, I have never seen or heard them again.
I believe they are more or less obsolete in the UK. (Alan can correct me, if I’m wrong.) If you say them in the US or Canada, people will think they are not English and will correct you.
The best thing to do is to forget about “usedn’t to” and “usen’t to”, and use “[color=blue]didn’t use to” instead.
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Hi Jamie,
Me too. This is the frist time I heard these words. Although, I am not English native speaker, I didn’t read, listen and see in any book I’ve studied or bought for just reading. What I studied was “used to” and “did not use to”. So I agree with you, it could be obsolete as you said.
We benefit from natives 
regards,
baraa
Hi teachers!!
If you say I should to forget that that is impossible, because I none-native English speaker so I have to know all the state-of-the-art or obsolete words use. To master one language knowledge, he must be aware of the old to, right?
I still ask the same question, is there any difference?
In my opinion, they are both wrong.
So, in that sense, there is no difference between usedn’t to and usen’t to.
Amy
Hi Soklong,
Your quotes:
must go into the dustbin.
The negative of used to
in informal use is usually: didn’t use(d) to
in formal use is usually: used not to
Some examples:
I really don’t know what’s the matter with you. You didn’t use(d) to be so bad tempered
The regulations concerning smoking in public places used not to be taken so seriously in the past.
Alan
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Hello Amy
In response to my question once, you did not sell on this one, remember? 
Yours
Tom
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Hi Tom
Sorry, I don’t know what question you’re referring to. I assume it was about “used to”, but I don’t understand what you’re asking me now. :?:
I see no problem with the negative “didn’t use to”.
Many native speakers also write “didn’t used to”, but most grammar books categorize this form as grammatically incorrect.
Does that answer your question?
Amy
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I study English at university in Ghent, Flanders.
I came across this using google, because I was confused by something I saw in my textbook and on the slides of my class. In grammatical usage we learned about usedn’t. So it’s probably right, no? My question is, what the hell does it mean?
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Native speakers don’t use “usedn’t to”, and it’s so unfamiliar to them that most of them would think of it as a mistake. It may have been correct at some time in history (I don’t know when), but it is not used now and is considered wrong.
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Although apparently obsolete in England (Britain?), the form “usedn’t to” is standard usage in Ireland. One does not hear “didn’t use to” or “didn’t used to”.
I recently came across this expression in the 1936 Agatha Christie novel, Murder in Mesopotamia, chapter 8 (used by Miss Johnson).
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Hi,
This construction is in a bit of a mess and that comes from the fact that in conversation it’s really impossible to hear the ‘d’ in ‘used’. The point is that ‘used to’ is stuck in the past and to say ‘didn’t used to’ really refers twice to the notion of ‘past’ but then ‘didn’t use to’ creates a new verb ‘use’ (to rhyme with ‘loose’) which doesn’t really exist. One way out of the problem is to say: ‘used not to’. That way at least it seems logical.
Alan
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Sorry guys but t I’m afraid those expressions weren’t wrong as you said before. My English Teacher has told me that those expressions belong to old English and maybe they’re not used now because the pronunciation is very difficult and the words are so long.
I hope my answer can help you!
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Hi guys. Native speaker here. Usen’t to is alive and well in Ireland. Didn’t used to sounds odd.
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Interesting, but then i recently watched the movie The Banshees of Inisherin and was baffled by some of the dialog. Fortunately, the actors were excellent and so I was able to follow the story.
Perhaps we need a new abbreviation; BrE, AmE and now IrE.
I’ve never seen these abbreviations in AmE. It was difficult for me to decode these words.
I would see both of these as informal:
We didn’t use(d) to go there very often.
We use(d) to not go there very often.
More formal:
When I was young, we didn’t go there very often…
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Hi,
I know the original is an old thread, but as a native British English speaker, and an English teacher, I can assure you that usen’t to is used to this day. It is a contraction of ‘I used not to’. Whilst more correctly spelt with the ‘d’, as said above by someone, it’s not pronounced. To native British English speakers, the ‘didn’t used to’ of American English doesn’t sound correct.
I encourage my students to feel free to use both types of English, but in official exams to bias towards British English.
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The “d” and “t” sounds can merge in rapid speech, making it sound like a single sound. This blending is a natural part of English pronunciation and helps make speech flow more smoothly.
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By abbreviations, you probably mean the more or less contracted forms, right? By the way and I think you probably already know that there’s a difference between abbreviations and acronyms, but MY British friend tells me that they both sound very natural and are grammatically correct.
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By the way, it wouldn’t be wrong to say: ‘When I was young, we didn’t use(d) to go there very often.’ That is if you want to emphasize the habitual action of not going there very often…because, strangely enough if you say: ‘When I was young we didn’t go there very often…’ gives me the impression that something or someone was not very kind to you and you didn’t want to make it a habitual action, because of that, so naturally you’d say that…I could be wrong, but that’s how I feel.
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