Let’s learn the first “used to” + examples

Why do we use “used to”

We use “used to” to talk about past habits or “long” actions (actions that are repeated for a long time, such as living, or working). 👌

How do we form it? 

Subject + used to + infinitive.

E.g. I used to go to the cinema every day (now I don’t go every day)

I used to have a beard (now I don’t have a beard)

We used to like pizza (now we don’t like pizza)

In Spanish it’s easy:

The translation in Spanish helps, I prefer: 

Antes hacía algo – I used to do something 

Antes comía más en este restaurante

I used to eat more in that restaurante. 

Forget the before! In Spanish the “imperfect tense” (those verbs that end in -ía for -er verbs and -aba for -ar verbs) is doing the work of “used to”. 

Some people like to use solía: solía comer aquí – I used to eat here 

But, using solía can sometimes have problems… Like when we want to translate “I used to live in London”.

I don’t really like it. 

Be careful with the negative:

To form negatives and questions, the form changes to ‘use to’.

E.g. Did you use to drink milk?

I didn’t use to drink milk.

Right, this is all the information you need to know. Now we will test your knowledge with a test! I really recommend taking some notes first and making sure you understand the construction. 🚴