''I was using'', ''I have used'', ''I have been using'', ''I had used''
I have used cocaine. I took cocaine at least once sometime in the past. I was using cocaine. In the past, I was a habitual user of cocaine. EDIT: As the comment says, this can
How does the phrase "used to" work, grammatically?
If "used to" is a set idiomatic phrase (i.e. not a tense), then why would it change its form from "use to" to "used to" for the sentence as it does in the positive?
differences
Here is a question that has been nagging me for a few years: Which is the right usage: "Didn''t used to" or "didn''t use to?" Examples: We lived on the coast for years but we
"Compared with" vs "Compared to"—which is used when?
Bryan Garner, Garner''s Modern American Usage, fourth edition (2016) provides what I take to be the current (and traditional) formal prescriptivist view among U.S. usage
Unusual words used to denote a specific length of time?
I''m looking for unusual/uncommon words that refer to a period of time. Something like fortnight: (chiefly UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, dated in North America)
When is "some" used as plural and when is it used as singular?
I am trying to explain to an ESL student how to understand when to treat "some" as plural and when to treat it as singular. One clear rule is when "some" is the subject followed...
orthography
I am confused when the spellings "tion", "sion", and "cion" are used in words that contain the "shun" sound. Are there any rules to help me understand when to use the correct
Should infinitive or ing-form be used after "help"?
These make up the vast majority of hits for ''can help doing something'' in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. In the sentence given though, help is quite
use vs. used what is the correct usage? [duplicate]
I am trying to find out if this question is correct. Did Wang Bo used to be awkward? Should I write "use to be" instead of "used to be," or is "used to be" correct in this sentence?
Why was "Spook" a slur used to refer to African Americans?
Spook was actually used by black people to refer to white people, presumably on the notion of “white” ghosts. spook n. [SE spook, a ghost] (US black) a white person. 1939
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