Routine activity theory essay3/1/2024 ![]() in the phrase ‘ She would always help me whenever I had a problem ‘ only would is possible? I can’t say ‘ She used to help me whenever I had a problem’ ?Īnother question concerns the difference between state and action verbs with Used to and Wouldįirst of all is it right that in the sentence ‘I used to smoke heavily when I was at university’ we can’t use would because ‘smoke’ here is a state ? 'Used to' talks about routine actions in the past but we are not sharing the specific time frame 'Would' only talks about past habits when the time frame is specified in the sentence. It’s about time frame, it goes like that : Hello team, recently I’ve come across a difference between would and used to which is not highlighted in your article. If something happened only once, we must use the past simple.ĭo this exercise to test your grammar again. We would go to the same beach every summer. We used to go to the same beach every summer. Also, the past simple doesn't make it so clear that the thing is no longer true. The main difference is that the past simple doesn't emphasise the repeated or continuous nature of the action or situation. We can always use the past simple as an alternative to used to or would to talk about past states or habits. Note that we can't usually use would to talk about past states. We don't normally use the negative or question form of would for past habits. Would for past habits is slightly more formal than used to. ![]() My dad would read me amazing stories every night at bedtime. We can use would to talk about repeated past actions that don't happen any more.Įvery Saturday I would go on a long bike ride. Used to + infinitive should not be confused with be/get used to + -ing, which has a different meaning. She used to smoke but she gave up a few years ago. I used to go swimming every Thursday when I was at school. We can also use used to to talk about past habits (repeated past actions) that don't happen any more. ![]() There didn't use to be a supermarket there. We used to live in New York when I was a kid. We can use used to to talk about past states that are not true any more. When we talk about things in the past that are not true any more, we can do it in different ways. Past habits: Grammar test 1 Grammar explanation We would always go to the seaside for our holidays.īut one holiday we went to the mountains instead. Look at these examples to see how used to, would and the past simple are used.
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