Talk about the Past and Habits in English USED TO vs WOULD
everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
we’re going to practice talking about
the past in English in this lesson I’m
going to focus on using use to and would
and will practice a little bit of simple
past tense as well so as you join please
make sure to like and share the video so
other learners can find it also please
send a message in the chat so that we
can say hi and as today’s lesson goes on
please feel free to send your example
sentences in the chat even if you’re not
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bit later but please check these out you
can find this for free from that link so
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vocabulary resources that is
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so as I said today’s lesson is about
talking about the past
we’re going to focus today on like the
distant past so distant past means a
long long long long time ago so for most
of us probably childhood or maybe like
your school days as well so that will be
the focus for today’s lesson okay I’m
going to share the video and then I’m
going to start today’s lesson too we’re
going to begin today by looking at using
use 2 and then I’m going to talk about
wood and finally I’m going to talk about
how to use these together so please send
your example sentences throughout the
lesson I will try to check live I will
try to check live if I can’t check live
very sorry but let’s get it started
ok let’s begin by talking about used to
used to
a common question first the
pronunciation
you will hear use to this D sound is
very very short and soft so you
generally do not say used to it sounds
like used to it sounds like used to in
writing some people say it’s okay to use
this spelling but others say no you
should use this spelling I’ll talk more
about this later when you’re talking
about your own activities you should say
used to do with this spelling anyway
I’ll talk more about this point later
the spell
later for now let’s take a look at how
we use used to so this is used to
describe something that was true in the
past something that was true in the past
but is not true now so I’ve made a
visual here if you imagine this point
this star on the timeline is now this is
the present time this is something it’s
not true now but a long time ago here in
the past it was true this is a check
mark here so I I mean that’s like yes
that’s true
so this is something that was true a
long time ago but is not true
now so your childhood or your school
days when you were little so we often
use this as I said for those those
points in time your distant past your
childhood and we can use used to without
a specific time period so we don’t have
to say like when I was a kid or when I
was in school because when we use used
to it’s often in a situation where we
can understand from context so we can
kind of begin a conversation with a used
to statement I’ll show some examples in
a moment finally this is a key point a
key difference between use 2 and wood is
this point right here we can use used to
to talk about statuses so statuses or
conditions that means we can use to be
like I used to be something something we
can use used to with a condition or a
status this is a key difference because
we can’t do that with wood I’ll show
some examples
so let’s look now at how we use used to
to make statements so just making a
basic sentence with used to to do that
we use our subject so that means I he
she we and so on plus used to that’s
just the infinitive form of the verb so
no to just the plain verb form
infinitive verb so some examples I
subject use to plus verb play soccer I
used to play soccer so one problem I see
from learners sometimes is they change
the verb to past tense that’s not
correct do not use the past tense verb
yes I know it’s a past action it’s a
past thing but for this grammar we do
not change the verb just by adding used
to we can make a correct statement so
please don’t change your verb I used to
play soccer that means I played soccer a
long long time ago now I do not play
soccer so used to communicates all of
this in just those two words I used to
play soccer
next example he used to hate bananas he
used to hate bananas so and this is an
example of like not necessarily an
action but a feeling so you can talk
about your preferences what did you like
what did you dislike when you were a kid
or far in the past so in this case my
verb is hate he used to hate bananas so
again my verb does not change he used to
hate he used to hate and send your
example sentences to
describe something you used to do as
well I’ll try to check live in the chat
okay next example sentence is wee-wee
this might be common for many people we
it’s hard to see maybe I know many of
you are watching on mobile sorry I’ll
try to read clearly we used to take a
family vacation every summer we used to
take a family vacation every summer so
again this means in the past a long long
time ago this was true now it is not
true so now we don’t take family
vacations every summer that’s what this
communicates the final example here this
is a status so I mentioned we can use
used to to talk about a condition to
talk about a status so I used to be a
teacher for example I used to be a
teacher so here we’ve used B yeah so B
is in the same place as just the regular
verb yeah so this follows the same
pattern as the other example sentences
we looked at I used to be a teacher so
we cannot use would in this way this
sentence means a long time ago I was a
teacher but now I am NOT a teacher
that’s what these all communicate with
used to many examples are coming I will
check YouTube examples Lea says I used
to hate avocados now I just don’t like
them that’s funny ok uh Ramat says I
used to hate vegetables good ok waleed
says I used to read story books good
teeka says I used to fight with my
brother great John says I used to sing
country music good and says I used to
drink rainwater really interesting
Arocha says I used to be skinny
is it correct yes that is a
grammatically correct sentence
Schiff deep says I used to go to school
okay
on Facebook then let’s see Ramsey has a
question used to is like a habit a habit
or some kind of common action so maybe
you did it in your school that is your
hobby for example or yes I have it as
well so you it’s something that was
regular for you a long time ago
so not just something that happened one
time we do not use used to for a
one-time action something that happened
regularly like a habit okay
other examples from Facebook I used to
play video games great very nice okay uh
I used to play games I used to play
video games yeah me too I used to play
video games I used to play hide and seek
okay ah okay there’s some interesting
examples on both sides now let’s go to
the last part for this this part of the
lesson about questions sometimes you
want to make a question with used to
it’s not super common to make a question
like an information question with
YouTube but here is how we do it we use
a wh question so who what when where for
example so for example what did Plus
your subject so you he she used to and
the infinitive verb for example where
did you use to play where did you use to
play so this might be a follow-up
question to this I used to play soccer
zazz person a person B might follow up
with oh where did you use to play so
this is probably something I would
probably ask a simple past tense
question but you might hear someone use
this pattern
to recognize that the other person no
longer they don’t do that anymore you
might hear this personally I would
probably use a simple past tense
where did you play so it’s kind of up to
you but right here this is the spelling
points that I mentioned earlier in
questions like this where did you use to
play the D sound print lick it’s so so
soft when I asked the question and
you’ll sometimes see people drop it drop
the D and spelling like in writing if
you write this question to someone so
I’ve researched this like what’s is it
correct is it incorrect and the general
guide right now is you can choose but
always make the same choice so keep in
mind this is questions questions only so
where did you use to play if you’re
making a question I’ve read some people
say it’s okay to remove the Dean
personally I would prefer to keep it I
prefer to keep it to make it clear okay
last last last point here is this so
this there are two here actually these
are confirmation questions so a
confirmation question is a question you
can use to check something so we use did
or did it we can use a positive or a
negative to do this plus our subject he
she you plus used to and the infinitive
verb for example didn’t you used to have
a car this is a very common way we use
used to in a question so we’re checking
didn’t you used to have a car at native
speed that sounds like didn’t you used
to have a car so this means I thought
you had a car it’s that correct
that’s what this means we use this
negative didn’t you two it shows like
it’s a question so we’re thinking we use
the negative instead of the positive did
you use to have a car you
the negative shows I thought this was
correct isn’t it correct is that right
so didn’t you used to have a car use a
pattern like this to confirm something
with someone else finally you might hear
a question like this
- where did or didn’t is just gone
there’s nothing here oh sorry it’s hard
to see I’m covering it my van you used
to play basketball and I have a question
mark here but you might hear this
question after like you used to play
basketball like when you feel really
shocked or surprised you learn something
new about someone you can use used to in
that question so you might say you used
to play basketball I used to play
basketball - so that’s a situation you
might hear use to in this confirmation
style question okay good we are going to
take a break now all right I see lots of
good examples I used to stumble over
where it’s good okay some good
conversation question or confirmation
questions Arocha says didn’t they used
to be our neighbors nice good good good
I’ll look for more in a minute I think
people are thinking for now a quick
break I said that there’s new stuff for
you to download I mentioned that there
is new there are new PDFs I will show
you some up close over here I thought
for today’s lesson because we’re talking
a lot about like hobbies and things that
were true in the past I wanted to choose
these two which we’ll see up close that
this one first this is the leisure
this is hobby a hobby vocabulary sheet
this guy and on the back right here near
the bottom down here there are
vocabulary words expression so these are
verbs that you can use with today’s
grammar points for example I used to go
to concerts or I used to go to the
theater and so on so these are some
verbs you can use to talk about your
previous hobbies this is another one if
you are like me and you like food and
cooking this could be a good one for you
again vocabulary words and on the back
these are verbs that you can use maybe
with today’s grammar point they’re less
common but there are some cooking
related verbs that you can use here too
so these are two new PDFs
you can find from the link below the
video on YouTube above the video on
Facebook if you’re watching on Instagram
please check YouTube or Facebook to get
these these are free from English class
101.com okay good so let’s get back to
today’s lesson if you’re just joining
today’s lesson is about how to talk
about the past with used to and wood and
a little bit of simple past tense if you
have not already please make sure to
like and share the video so other people
can find it ok let’s go to part 2 then
part 2 is about using wood how to use
wood to talk about the past and what’s
the difference
they’re so bottom wood so I have this
arrow here this arrow means miss parts
applies so at the beginning of this
lesson
I said used to describe something that
was true in the past but it’s not true
now this is the same for wood the same
point is true for wood so we use wood to
talk about something that was true
before but is not true now so this is
the same we tend to use wood with
repeated actions so repeated actions for
example something we did every year or
every day or every month or every winter
we tend to use wood to talk about
something we did with like some kind of
slick schedule a regular schedule so we
can use YouTube to talk about this too
but we’ll often kind of give more a
little more detail when we use wood we
use wood when like the general time
period or the general situation is known
so this has a bit different from used to
I mentioned with used to we can like
begin a conversation with a used to
statement like I used to play soccer and
so on but we can’t really do that and
sound natural with wood we don’t really
begin a conversation with I would play
soccer every day it sounds a little bit
unnatural we understand but usually we
use wood when we know some information
about the time period or we know some
information about the situation first
okay then this part right here this part
right here is a key point
so I said over here for use too we can
use used to to talk about a status to
describe a condition like I used to be a
teacher however we cannot use wood to do
this we cannot talk about staff
and conditions we can only talk about
actions with wood so we cannot use it if
you want to say like make a beef
statement please use you stood to do
that okay oh wow hey there man well
thanks very much for super chatting us
awesome we appreciate it
okay so let’s compare now on a timeline
using wood so this is the same idea as
with the used to timeline yeah so this
point here marks now this is the present
time there’s an X here so something that
is not true now yeah but in the past
like in the distant distant past we did
this it was true and I’ve put a few
check marks here to show that this was a
repeating action so we did it every week
we did it every month or maybe every day
some kind of repeating action it was
part of our schedule we did this thing a
lot we want to emphasize that we can
show that a little more clearly with
wood so let’s look at how we make
statements how do we make just a simple
statement with wood just like with used
to we use our subject and we use wood
and we use the infinitive form of the
verb so again you do not need to change
your verb for this grammar pad as I said
though when you make a sentence with
wood or rather when we make sentences
with wood we typically combine we put it
together with some information about the
time period for example when I was a kid
when I was a kid this is a very common
one when I was a kid I would collect
stamps and put them in a box in my room
I would collect so I would collect
stamps and put them in a box into my
room this is the regular action so yes
I’m not
like every week or every month but
because I’m using wood it feels like a
repeated action when I was a kid I would
collect stamps so I know the time period
I know about when the action happened
and I know the action that I did a lot I
would collect stamps and put them in a
box in my okay let’s go to the next
example then the next example we change
the subject so when he was in college
when he was in college that this is not
about me maybe it’s about my family
member or my friend when he was in
college he would he would go out to
crazy parties every weekend he would go
out to crazy parties every weekend so
again past tense situation yes the verb
does not change so this verb go this
does not become went this is something
that was true in the past and in this
case I shared every weekend so we know
the frequency this was something every
weekend happened every weekend he would
go out to crazy parties every weekend
okay and last example sentence when she
was little when she was little
this is another very common pattern you
can use to like when I was little so
that means when you were a little kid so
physically when you were small when I
was little in American English we
usually use little not small so when she
was little she would leave leave her
clothes all over the house she would
leave her clothes all over the house so
yes the verb here is leave but it
doesn’t mean like leave a house
it means like to forget things so like
you place something somewhere and then
you go away so we use the verb leave to
describe that she would leave her
clothes all over the house so this is a
repeated action again here we don’t know
exactly how often it happen
but would shows us that it was a
repeating action okay I will check some
examples now I’m on on Facebook says
when he was in school he would play
piano so again infinitive form of the
verb do not change your verb when he was
in school he would play piano and then
it’s perfect ma say hey my CI we would
hang out every weekend night good good
good so include some time period like
when we were kids we would hang out
every night would be great yes any
examples what is the meaning of wood
wood I’ve just explained that right here
if you missed the explanation you can
check the video back so we use it to
talk about repeating actions from the
past from the distant past Arocha says
when I was a kid I would travel around
the world I would travel so yes
infinitive verb yes by that I mean just
the verb not the to do not include the
two there the infinitive form of the
verb it this helps infinitive form of
the verb
not literally 2 + / someone says I want
to repeat this lesson again great you
can you can watch it because it’s being
recorded check the channel later ok I
want to finish this point and then the
last point is done Eric I saw your
message Oh check it later this point
here I talked about questions with wood
I’m sorry I’ve talked about questions
with used to UM this note this wood we
do not use generally it’s very rarely
used for questions because we use wood
to make questions in a different way so
generally if you want to ask a question
about someone’s past will generally use
just simple past tense to do that and
then you might reply by using wood so
generally we do not use wood to make
questions actually so don’t worry about
that
focus on using wood to make this
boxes okay some more examples are coming
in I saw something about vegetables I
missed it so Billy says my parents would
always make me eat vegetables very nice
very nice okay okay good so let’s see we
have a few minutes left I’ll go to the
last point because it’s a lot of text
but it’s quick actually let’s go to the
last point then how do we use these
together how do we use these together
with simple past tense so a lot of you
say like how do I write a paragraph how
do I tell a story here’s a really quick
example that uses these grammar points
plus simple past tense so your steps
there are three steps to doing this that
I could recommend for you to practice
this first introduce your concept
introduce your topic with used to so
used to remember we don’t have to
include a specific time period with used
to but introduce your topic with used to
with maybe no specific time period step
to give details share a repeated action
using would usually would as I talked
about so give some details and then step
three and so that means finish end with
a past tense statement so if you’re
talking about a memory you can end with
a past tense statement something that
has finished or you can also finish with
a present tense statement if you want to
describe the situation now so we’ll
finish today by looking at two examples
of this first first example I used to
live with a really messy roommate I used
to live with a really messy roommate so
I used to live this tells us already
this is not true this was true before it
is not true now I used to live with a
messy so messy means dirty they’re not
clean a messy roommate a really messy
roomie
second sentence every week the guy would
leave his dirty dishes in the sink and
wait for me to clean them up so every
week
this shows the repetition with wood yeah
every week the guy so that means the guy
is this messy roommate every week the
guy would leave said this is the same
leave we talked about before would leave
his dirty dishes in the sink and wait
for me to clean them up so this is the
repeated action right every week this
happened so I show that with wood and
then my last sentence I eventually moved
out I eventually moved out eventually
means in the end after a period of time
I moved out moved out means I leaved
sorry I left that house I moved out so
this is a quick very short example of
using used to then wood and then in this
case simple past tense because I want to
talk about just that memory so after
that I moved out I moved out okay let’s
finish then with this last example again
I’ll start with a used to statement a
used to statement so my parents used to
live around here my parents used to live
around here again used to shows this is
not true anymore my parents lived around
here a long time ago
now they do not my parents used to live
around here when I worked in this
neighborhood when I worked in this
neighborhood so I do not work in the
neighborhood now when I worked in this
neighborhood I would go to their house
every week for dinner I would go to
their house every week for dinner so
again I’m showing repetition with wood
and I’m talking about the frequency with
every week here I would go to their
house every week for dinner finally here
my mom makes
amazing food and my dad is pretty good
with a barbecue so here I’m ending with
a present tense statement the reason is
I want to express my parents skill now I
want to make a statement about sorry I
want to make a statement about the
situation now
so yes the first two lines are a memory
but the last statement is just a fact I
want to end with a fact so that’s
totally fine to do so these are examples
first is sharing a memory may be a bad
memory and second is sharing some
memories and the situation now so these
are three short simple way steps rather
you can use to practice these points
together and I want to end today by
saying if you are not sure should I use
use - should I use would should I use
simple past tense one you can follow
these guides for use two and four would
and then for simple past tense if you
did the action just one time use simple
past tense just use simple past tense I
did that action we use these to talk
about habits things we did a lot of
things that were common all right a
couple minutes to check a couple points
I don’t see any I haven’t seen many
questions lots of example sentences
though someone said denílson he said I
used to think that the day would never
come that my life would depend on the
Morning Sun is that from something it
sounds like a poem okay interesting
Sam Sam on Facebook says I used to read
books now I don’t now I don’t so if you
want to say like if you want to
emphasize that action is not true you
can say now I don’t or now he doesn’t
now she doesn’t and so on
okay I’m going to finish there for today
but we will be back next week so I hope
that this was helpful for you again this
lesson has been recorded so please check
the lesson after we’re finished so you
can watch everything and you
can look at all of the points on the
board - next week we’ll be back next
week’s lesson is about aha English
vocabulary for social media yeah that’s
right and it will be September 4th Wow
it’s already September oh my gosh
Wednesday September 4th at 10 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time I’ll talk about
vocabulary for social media so that
means expressions you see on social
media and expressions to use to talk
about social media so please join us
live next Wednesday 10:00 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time for that that will be a
good one I think also please don’t
forget to get the new a new new new new
new exciting very exciting PDFs from the
link below the video on youtube or above
the video on Facebook I showed a couple
I thought were good for this week this
one there’s a lot of other ones so check
the link I don’t have time to share all
of them I think there’s like 8 maybe 8
or 10 new ones so check them out see
what you like and download those for
free I will finish up there for today
then so thank you very much to everybody
for sending your awesome example
sentences and for liking and sharing the
video please join us again next week and
enjoy the rest of your week have a nice
weekend we’ll see you again soon bye bye
you