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	keri 2008-11-25 08:23 pm UTC (link)
	I've argued the same thing with the double modals that are common to Southern American English. "Used to could" doesn't mean the same thing as "used to" or just "could" god-dang-it, so stop telling me I'm an idiot when I use the phrase! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

issendai
2008-11-25 09:02 pm UTC (link)

What does "used to could" mean?

This reminds me of some of the commentary over Ebonics, when scholars pointed out that black American English has several more tenses than mainstream English, so often people have trouble learning mainstream English because black English is more, not less, precise. My favorite was the difference between "He been married" and "He BEEN married," where one means "He married a while ago and has been married ever since" and one means "He was married a while ago but isn't married now." (Don't ask me which means which.) When you have that sort of precision, why give it up for workarounds?

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keri
2008-11-25 09:11 pm UTC (link)

If I say "I used to could watch that on tv," I'd be saying that in the past, but not any more, there was the possibility of watching that on tv, and I was able to act on it, but I didn't necessarily do so. I guess it's like "I used to be able to" but with three fewer words? and the inflection is a bit different, but I'm not sure how to explain it. I think with "used to be able to," it's implied that the speaker *did* do whatever it was.

Whereas "I could watch that on tv" is ambiguous about when that possibility occurred and "I used to watch that on tv" states that it definitely happened.

"might could" is the future form. There really isn't a present tense version, since it's all about possibilities and not what's actually going on.

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	seraangelus 2008-11-26 03:33 am UTC (link)
	Hmm, see I'd say 'I could have watched that on TV when it was on.' and then you could go from there. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	keri 2008-11-26 03:58 am UTC (link)
	Maybe, but it sounds like it should have a different meaning to me. :P I just love the double modals, and have been using them for as long as I can remember. Except when I was in high school and was convinced that the dialect I grew up speaking was backwards and crass. Alas. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lyssa 2008-11-26 09:10 am UTC (link)
	I generally say "I used to be able to ____." =o (Reply to this)(Parent)

	eilan 2008-11-26 11:07 am UTC (link)
	I think with "used to be able to," it's implied that the speaker did* do whatever it was.* Well, ergh... "be able to" is the same as "can", just as "have to" is the same as "must". (Reply to this)(Parent)

iwanttobeasleep
2008-11-25 09:24 pm UTC (link)

I had a linguistics teacher who taught us about that, also. (And how racist/classist it is to call Ebonics/black English lazy, when it's just as complex as ours, if not moreso.) The whole thing made me feel guilty that my dialect wasn't as complex, but there's little to do to change that.

Luckily, I am learning to embrace the ridiculously roundabout language of English majors, which is just as awesome even if I can't use it in everyday speech.

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	napalmnacey 2008-11-25 11:42 pm UTC (link)
	Man, Ebonics is amazing. It's the same words but I have no frickin' idea what they're saying. It's like the beginning of a new language or something, and I love it. (Different shit to what I'm used to excites me, I'm so weird). (Reply to this)(Parent)

	wonderfish 2008-11-26 06:18 am UTC (link)
	As I recall "he BIN married" (that's the spelling I recall, but, y'know, variation) is the "he married a while ago and has been married ever since" meaning. Some reinforcement courtesy random Google search. I love dialects. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	issendai 2008-11-26 06:32 am UTC (link)
	Whoa! SO COOL THE INTERNET IS FULL OF SO VERY MANY THINGS. bookmarks Thank you for that link! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	specialmandate 2008-12-07 03:26 pm UTC (link)
	Scots/Scottish English does that well. I remember saying, 'Yeah, I might can go' to an English girl once and I could just see the cogs working in her head for a second as she tried to parse the gibberish I'd just come out with. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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