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The School of English Grammar:  Used to or Would?

One of our CAE students, Sandy Tran asks us during a class to explain the difference between Used to and Would.  In this blog post, we provide further information.  You will also find a video below which also explains this.  


by Mike Davies, Lead English Language Course Trainer for Unique Languages


Used to and would do lead to some confusion, so I thought I would write a brief blog post on this grammatical conundrum as well as make the accompanying video during a break from one of our Business English classes.


Both used to and would can be used to describe previous past habits that are now no longer done.


When I was a child, I used to travel to school by bus.


When I was a child, I would travel to school by bus.


When talking about these past habits, you can use both forms to communicate your message.


There is one specific circumstance where you can only use used to however, and this is when you are describing a particular state or situation.  


I used to live in Spain.         (NOT I would live in Spain)


I used to work for a bank.   (NOT I would work for a bank)


Here's the video, which I hope helps a little too.






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