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“Used to” and “would” COMMON MISTAKES “USED TO” AND THE PAST CONTINUOUS

When talking about habits
When talking about habits or states in the past, “used to” See also: in the past, “used to”
should be used. It is
or “would” are often used. English often uses these forms Present simple 1 Past simple 4 incorrect to use the past
to contrast the past with the present. Past continuous 10 Adverbs of frequency 102 continuous in this context. The past continuous shouldn’t be
used to talk about past habits.

“USED TO”
“Used to” can be ANOTHER WAY TO SAY “USED TO” WITH HABITS
used with the Refers to a past habit.
base form of a “Used to” can be replaced by “would” in writing and formal speech, but
verb to talk about only to talk about past habits. These statements often include a reference
past habits. to time to describe when, or how often something happened.
Refers to a past habit.

PAST NOW

Refers to a past state.
“Used to” can also
be used to talk 6 YEARS AGO 5 YEARS AGO 4 YEARS AGO NOW
about fixed states
at some indefinite
time in the past.
FURTHER EXAMPLES

PAST NOW

FURTHER EXAMPLES “Used” becomes “use” in
questions and negative forms.

COMMON MISTAKES “WOULD” WITH STATES

“Would” cannot be
used to talk about states
in the past. “Used to”
must be used instead.

“Would” cannot be used in this
way with state verbs.

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