Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

OUGHT TO AND SHOULD

399

Should

is much more frequent than ought to, in referring to both what is desirable

and what is likely.

Tags for clauses with ought to often occur with should, instead of ought:

There 

ought to be criteria, shouldn’t there?

It 

oughtn’t to have been like that really, should it?

Interrogatives and negatives with ought to are rare; should is generally preferred

instead:

Should we have this window open again now or not?

(preferred to: Ought we to have this window open …?)

It’s a tax form to say I’m a student and I 

shouldn’t be paying tax.

(preferred to: … I’m a student and I oughtn’t/ought not to be paying tax.)

USED TO

400

Used to

refers to past habitual behaviour or states of affairs in the past which are

no longer true:

A: She’s very tall isn’t she?

B: Yes, she used to do ballet.

(she did ballet but no longer does it)

There 

used to be a railway going through the village but it was closed in the

1960s.

Negative

The negative of used to is most typically didn’t use(d) to. In more formal styles,

used not to

occurs. The contracted form usedn’t to may occasionally occur, but is

very rare:

[talking of a married couple who grew to dislike each other over the years]

When he went home she was nasty and fed up and he said sometimes she

never even looked up when he went in and yet they 

didn’t used to be like that.

But they grew to be like that.

She 

used not to be so censorious of others’ behaviour but her own betrayal had,

she thought, seared her more than she understood.

The alternatives didn’t used to/didn’t use to both occur as written representations

of the negative with didn’t, though in speech it is often impossible to hear a

difference and the most likely pronunciation is /ddn(t)

|

justə/.