Past habits: 'used to', 'would' and the past simple

Do you know how to talk about past habits using used to, would and the past simple? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

Look at these examples to see how used to, would and the past simple are used.

They used to live in London.
I didn't use to like olives.
We would always go to the seaside for our holidays.
But one holiday we went to the mountains instead.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

If it's possible, make a sentence with 'would + infinitive'. If it's not possible, use 'used to + infinitive':

1) I / have short hair when I was a teenager[ . ]

2) We / go to the same little café for lunch every day when I was a student[ . ]

3) She / love playing badminton before she hurt her shoulder[ . ]

4) He / walk along the beach every evening before bed[ . ]

5) I / always lose when I played chess with my father[ . ]

6) She / be able to dance very well[ . ]

7) My grandfather / drink a cup of coffee after dinner every night[ . ]

8) Luke / not have a car[ . ]

9) We / live in Brazil[ . ]

10) My family / often go to the countryside for the weekend when I was young[ . ]

Grammar explanation

When we talk about things in the past that are not true any more, we can do it in different ways.

Used to + infinitive

We can use used to to talk about past states that are not true any more.

We used to live in New York when I was a kid.
There didn't use to be a supermarket there. When did it open?
Did you use to have a garden?

We can also use used to to talk about past habits (repeated past actions) that don't happen any more.

I used to go swimming every Thursday when I was at school.
She used to smoke but she gave up a few years ago.

used to + infinitive should not be confused with be/get used to + -ing, which has a different meaning.

Would

We can use would to talk about repeated past actions that don't happen any more.

Every Saturday I would go on a long bike ride.
My dad would read me amazing stories every night at bedtime.

would for past habits is slightly more formal than used to. It is often used in stories. We don't normally use the negative or question form of would for past habits. Note that we can't usually use would to talk about past states.

Past simple

We can always use the past simple as an alternative to used to or would to talk about past states or habits. The main difference is that the past simple doesn't emphasise the repeated or continuous nature of the action or situation. Also, the past simple doesn't make it so clear that the thing is no longer true.

We went to the same beach every summer.
We used to go to the same beach every summer.
We would go to the same beach every summer.

If something happened only once, we must use the past simple.

I went to Egypt in 2014.

I used to have short hair when I was a teenager

We would go to the same little café for lunch every day when I was a student

She used to love playing badminton before she hurt her shoulder

He would walk along the beach every evening before bed

I would always lose when I played chess with my father

She used to be able to dance very well

My grandfather would drink a cup of coffee after dinner every night

Luke didn't use to have a car

We used to live in Brazil

My family would often go to the countryside for the weekend when I was young