Name: “I used to…” & “I would…”: Talking about the past in English
Uploaded: 2022-08-15T18:55:52.000Z
Duration: 7 min
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

To-infinitive

Um This is a very curious thing that that I've been thinking about as a native speaker of english and I want to know what you think.

Um we have two ways to talk about our past, Well probably more than two, but let's not get into that.

Um the two phrases that we use a lot in english are used to and we use wood.

So for example, I can say, oh you know what?

Um I used to drink Guinness every saturday or I can say I would drink Guinness every saturday and I was thinking what's the difference when I would say used to or would now another reason why this is difficult is because when I would say this normally or quickly, I wouldn't say used to, I would say use to, so when you hear native people speaking, you're gonna hear them say you stop.

I used to play football, I used to do this, I used to, I used to use that and what is you stop?

You stop is used to, okay, we use this to talk about our past habits, but it's super important to understand that we don't do them now.

And would we're going to use for repeated actions or routines.

But again, both of these are in the past um used to or use to is also going to have a time period.

So we're going to know exactly that the action has stopped.

If I say in a very natural way, I'd say we used to go to the sea or the ocean when I was young.

If I compare this to uh, we would go to the sea every summer.

When you look at this, you think, do you know what they're talking about the past?

I don't really see a big difference and you're right, it isn't a huge difference, but there's a definite difference.

Um, when we speak english quickly, we don't say we would, we say we'd we'd yeah, we'd, oh, we go to the sea every summer.

We would, so we say we, oh, when I was a kid, we go to the sea every summer.

We used to go to the sea when I was young.

This tells me that I'm not young anymore and because I'm not young, my time period, I finished doing the action.

But if I said the sentence, like we would go to the sea every summer time.

It's like I'm reminiscing or I'm telling you a story about what I did in the past as a repeated action or a routine.

Maybe every summer your family would jump in the car and go on a road trip.

We would drive for hours and then go nowhere because dad got lost all the time.

Um but if I say like, oh, we used to go on road trips, it has the connotation, which means the meaning the hidden meaning that you don't do that anymore.

But if I say we would go to the sea every summer, I don't know if you still do that or not, So remember it like this used to, it means you did something in the past, you don't do it anymore.

And would you just talking about repeated actions and routines and we're not sure if you do it anymore, it's not important.

What's important is that you did do it and you're telling me about it.

Um I used to, okay, that's how we say it quickly.

Used to, I used to smoke, but I don't now because I use use stuff.

If I said I would smoke or I'd smoke at the cottage.

This is something that I would do as a routine and you don't know if I still do that.

What do you think would be the best words to fill in?

So we can say she used to eat meat or she would eat meat.

Probably the answer is going to be used to.

It's telling me that she did it and now she doesn't, maybe she's a vegetarian or vegan now whatever this one he drive 100 K every day.

But do you think we would say he used to drive 100 kilometers every day or he would drive 100 kilometers every day because we have the word every day.

So it's more natural to say he would drive or he'd, oh yeah, he drive 100 k every day.

Maybe he doesn't even have a car, but it's not important.

What's important is that we don't know, we know we did this as a routine, but if I say he used to drive means he's not doing it anymore.

So this is something for more advanced english thinkers or english learners the next time you're listening to people in a conversation when they use wood or used to pay attention to figure out if what they're talking about is as a routine.

So you can use wood or if it's something that they did in the past, but don't do anymore.

What are some things that you used to do?

Maybe when you lived in another country or when you were younger and what are some things that you would do as a routine when you were younger in the past?

Oh, I would go on my bike for hours ride around.