In this installment of Word Knots we’ll focus on two very common and related blunders that comes up too often in both verbal and written English. 

Once again our source for this is installment is The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books). It’s a great book: Check it out.

From Fiske (excerpted):

suppose to

Solecistic for supposed to. 

Here’s an example from Fiske (excerpted):

• Midland was suppose to play Calamus–Wheatland Friday night in basketball. USE supposed to.

As Fiske says:

Supposed to. not suppose to, is the correct expression. SEE ALSO use to.

use to

Solecistic for used to. 

Here’s an example from Fiske (excerpted):

• When my older brother and I were young, we use to go back in the woods and check out our “muscadine tree” in early spring. USE used to.

As Fiske says:

The correct phrase is used to since used is the past tense of, as well as the adjectival form of, use.

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In my view, these blunders are the result of sheer sloppiness. They both likely originate in spoken English, but have somehow infested written English as well. And currently, many people like to use various voice-to-test apps: If the speakers says either of these phrases incorrectly, the text will be incorrect as well. And once again, for written text, it’s very doubtful that AI will be of any help in those cases either.

Let’s look at an example that uses each of these correctly.

We were supposed to be in the 9:00 a.m. meeting on Tuesday, which we used to hold on Monday.

Once again, details are critical, which is why checking your work is an important step toward ensuring that your intended meaning is clear.

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