Would or Used To

Index of Daily Doses: http://DailyDoseOfEnglish.com

Whether to use would or used to to talk about the past confuses many students. This Daily Dose of English is an attempt to explain it as concisely as possible. It uses some examples to help you understand when to use would or used to.

I used to live in England before I came to Spain.
I used to play chess on Fridays at school.
I used to hate spiders.
Those are all finished situations in the past., and we use used to...
I used to live in England. I used to play chess. I used to hate spiders.
Can we use would with any of those?
With the first one, which is a continuous situation, I used to live in England,
we cannot use would.
With the second one...
I used to play chess...
we can use would...
because it's a repeated action or situation that is finished in the past.
So we can use would.
I would play chess on Fridays at school.
Can we use would with...
I used to hate spiders?
Did I hate spiders repeatedly?
Over and over?
No, I just hated them, full stop, for a long period of time.
So we can't use would in that situation.
We can only say...
I used to hate spiders.
So, used to is for continuous actions and situations that are finished in the past.
It's also for repeated actions and situations that are finished in the past.
Whereas would can only be used for repeated actions and situations in the past.

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[daniellewagenaar]

I'll bet he's not wearing pants..

[gsolis12001]

Thanks a lot.



[liu0tube]

I would like to ask your permission to post your lessons on Chinese "youtube-like" websites because people in Mainland China don't have the access to youtube.com.

You lessons are short and sweet. They would be of great help to Chinese who are learning English. Anyway, it's your call. Thanks!

[elenafriend23]

Thank you! I really enjoyed the dose, it was a good revision!

[vanerou]

Thank you SO MUCH!!! I did not know about this other use of the word WOULD!!!

[theinspirething]

It's helping! Thank you!

[Chabihakim]

It is really so great. I am learning something new every day. It gives me much pleasure. If I don,t have introduced with this program I can,t learn this new Idea" Daily dose of English". You are a good, good teacher.I wish you good heath, sound mind and long life. I feel proud to be your student. Again Thanks a lot from my heart.

[cfpmx]

You're so great. This was a little confusing for me, but now, i can see that it's really simple only watching your video. Thank you.

[MuhammadEgypt]

Thank you so much Mr. Richard for your quick response. It's me Mohamed, the person who asked this question. Thanks again for your quick response and for your worthy explanation.

[pupygoes]

@Linguaspectrum thank you so much...i think it was very early in the morning when i watched this video!! lol