Grammar Girl here, about a month ago I answered a bunch of short listener questions, and I promised

I'd answer a few more soon.

Well, today's the day.

Here's the first question.

Hey, Grammar Girl, this is Ferret in the NAND Tucket on NAND Tucket Island.

Of course.

Anyway, my question is about the usage of I use to.

And whether that is I use to, of course, USE, or USEC, I referenced it on the internet

and couldn't get a definitive answer on that.

Both options seem to come up and ended up coming to head today with a lunch and a bunch

of construction guys sitting around the bar all arguing.

And I thought that was pretty funny, so I thought, now it's the time to call Grammar Girl.

Thanks.

The right way to say this is used to, with a D on the end.

People get confused about this phrase because the D and the T sounds between the words are

easy to run together.

But it's easy to remember that used to is the right form.

Just remember that when you say you used to do something, you were talking about the past,

and you make most verbs past tense by adding D or ED to the end.

So just as you say you heaved yourself into the kayak or twirled in a circle, you say

you used to have a lot more fun than sitting around at lunch arguing about words.

Thanks, Barrett.

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