What’s the us(ag)e?
What is the use? Some people get frustrated by the demand that what we write must be written correctly. We don’t worry very much about how we speak. After all, once we have spoken something, it is gone. There is no record of our speech, unless it is recorded on tape, but that very seldom happens. And even if it does happen, the result isn’t evidence to use against us as “bad speakers.” But writing is different. Writing is permanent. Remember that “permanent record” from grade school. Writing is always a permanent record. And that worries us. If we make a mistake, it is there for as long as the paper last that it is written on (or as long as it is in someone’s email).
[This is a test: who caught the mistake I made in the paragraph above when I wrote “last” instead of “lasts”? It’s okay to make a mistake if you catch it quickly. It’s even okay to advertise it as I have done. But we don’t feel okay about it when someone points out to us that we have made a mistake. And in speech the distinction between “last” and “lasts” is so fine that it’s hardly noticeable.]
This anxiety about making mistakes and there being a permanent record of them keeps us from writing enough to develop confidence. That we are afraid to write is the biggest obstacle to improving. You can be an accident-free driver if you always keep the car in the garage. It’s the same with writing. You have to write a lot, and by doing that you will make a lot of mistakes. But eventually you will also develop a lot of confidence, and those mistakes will get less frequent, and the mistakes that you do make (that we all make) will not bother you as much as they once did. And those mistakes won’t raise your insurance rates, harm yourself or others. So why be anxious about writing? Just write. And recognize that EVERYONE makes mistakes in writing. Everyone.
Now, let’s talk about the past. Not your past and not mine. Let’s talk about the past tense. Verbs have tenses, the most common being the present, past, and future. But there are others, less common but just as important for communication. But I’m not concerned with those now. I’m only concerned with those few words whose pronunciation causes us to not distinguish the past from the present tense.
Here is one of those deceptive past tenses: used.
We say, “He use to like beer, but now all he drinks is apple juice.”
But, his liking beer is past tense: so we have to use the past tense of the verb “use.” And that past tense is “used.”
Our correct sentence reads: He used to like beer, but now all he drinks is apple juice. Since we don’t pronounce the “used” correctly (since it elides with the “t” of “to”), we often don’t write it correctly.
The word “suppose” is another one that we often forget has a past tense: “supposed,” as in “Am I supposed to write ‘supposed’ instead of ‘suppose’ in a sentence like: ‘John was suppose to arrive today’?”
And the answer is that since “supposed” is the past tense of “suppose” then you must use “supposed” in such sentences as “John was supposed to arrive today.”
If you can think of other words like “use” and “suppose” that we frequently use only in the present tense when we should be using the past tense, send them to me. I suppose that I will use them. I am supposed to use them. And I will.
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