Used to vs. Would

Welcome back to the Art of Business English. This week we are brining you a short lesson on some grammar, “used to” vs “would”. This is more advanced level grammar, but it is easy to learn. So, let’s take a look at how you can use it to refer to past actions.

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Used to

We use “used to” + bare infinitive (verb without “to) for:
Actions that happened regularly in the past but no longer happen.

States that existed in the past but no longer exist

Used to structure

Affirmative: Subject + used to + verb + object

Negative: Subject + did not + use to + verb + object

Interrogative: Did + subject + use to + verb + object?

Would

We use “would” + bare infinitive for regular actions in the past that we no longer do. We do not use it for past states.

Would structure

Affirmative: Subject + would + verb + object

Negative: Not commonly used in negative

Interrogative: Would + subject + verb + object?

Grammar extra

Note: 

Final thoughts

In conclusion, this is how we use "used to" and "would" to talk about past repeated actions and/or states in English. So, the next time you hear someone using "would" to refer to a past repeated action you will know that they are not talking about the conditional use but in fact about something they "used to" do. 

Please leave your comments below and feel free to ask me any question. 

Check out my course on improving your General English skills, where we cover this grammar and a lot more below. 

See you all next week and have fun improving your business English.