LEARN ENGLISH with Dan28 Touko 2025

USED TO and WOULD

Improve your English today at ANGLOPOD.COM. Hi everyone, I’m Dan and today we’re going to look at the difference between USED TO and WOULD in English. You might think these two words are very different but actually we use them both to talk about past habits. Let’s learn more…

So, in the last lesson, we learnt that we use USED TO to talk about past habits. “I USED TO PLAY football” or “I USED TO GO swimming”. But there is another way to talk about past habits. You could use the modal verb WOULD.

For example, “When I was a child, I WOULD PLAY football” or “I WOULD GO swimming”. It’s another great way to talk about your past habits. “When I was a student, I WOULD GET UP late, I WOULD GO to lots of parties, I WOULD have too much homework!”

However, there is one main difference. We can use USED TO to talk about actions and states in the past, but we can only use WOULD to talk about actions in the past. So we can say “I USED TO PLAY football” or “I WOULD PLAY football” because they’re both actions, but you can’t use WOULD for a state. You could say “I USED TO BE shorter” but not “I WOULD BE shorter”, because the verb ‘be’ refers to a state, not an action.

One final rule. When you write USED TO in a negative sentence or a question, you write USE TO (without ‘d’), so “I USED TO PLAY football”, “I DIDN’T USE TO PLAY football” and “DID you USE TO PLAY football?” But the good news is that the pronunciation is exactly the same. You can’t hear the difference. It always sounds like USED TO.

So, I USED TO PLAY football a lot at school. I WOULD PLAY lots of different sports. How about you? Go to ANGLOPOD.COM and tell us about all the repeated actions in your past, the actions you did as a habit, but you don’t do now. See you soon!

Learn more: https://www.anglopod.com

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(40)

REMEMBER TO DO or REMEMBER DOING?

Hi everyone, I’m Dan and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.com/Today we’re going to learn how to use the verb REMEMBER and how the meaning ...

3 Touko 4min

TRY TO DO or TRY DOING?

Hi everyone, I’m Dan, and this is ANGLOPOD, a podcast and website to help you improve your English: https://www.anglopod.comToday we’re going to learn how to use the verb TRY and how the meaning chang...

3 Touko 3min

BEAT and WIN

What's the difference between BEAT and WIN in English when you talk about games and competitions? Let's find out...Improve your English at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK: ⁠⁠...

3 Joulu 20253min

STEAL and ROB

What's the difference between STEAL and ROB in English? Listen and learn!Improve your English at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://anglopod.kit.com/ebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subs...

26 Marras 20254min

ALL and EVERY

How do we use the determiners ALL and EVERY in English? Listen and find out!Improve your English at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://anglopod.kit.com/ebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subsc...

19 Marras 20253min

REMEMBER and REMIND

Can you REMEMBER the difference between the verbs REMEMBER and REMIND? Would you like me to REMIND you? Listen and find out!Improve your English at ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK:...

12 Marras 20253min

GET and GO

When do we use GET and when do we use GO? Let's find out how to use these two really important verbs in English!Improve your English at ⁠⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK: ⁠⁠⁠https://an...

5 Marras 20253min

LISTEN and HEAR

What's the difference between LISTEN and HEAR? Many languages only use one verb, but in English we use two!Improve your English at ⁠⁠https://www.anglopod.com/⁠⁠Get the FREE EBOOK: ⁠⁠https://anglopod.k...

29 Loka 20253min