Originally Posted by
Lydianne
When I was younger, I used to think it sounded slick. Now that I'm older, I also try to avoid it. The problem, though, is when you have adverb + verb infinitive. Trying to rephrase it is difficult because:
A phrase like "I used to really love it" could become "I really used to love it."
However, the problem is ambiguity of what the "really" gets tied to: the "used to" or the "love". In this case, context and common usage makes it more likely to bind to the "love", but you can't always rely on that. So you go for: "I used to love it really", which just sounds either strange or protesty. That irks me less than the splittage though.
- L.