Used to & Would = Talking about the past

Welcome to ESL Printables, the website where English Language teachers exchange resources: worksheets, lesson plans, activities, etc.
Our collection is growing every day with the help of many teachers. If you want to download you have to send your own contributions.

ESL Forum:

Techniques and methods in Language Teaching

Games, activities and teaching ideas

Grammar and Linguistics

Teaching material

Concerning worksheets

Concerning powerpoints

Concerning online exercises

Make suggestions, report errors

Ask for help

Message board

ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > Used to & Would = Talking about the past

Used to & Would = Talking about the past

GRUPO

Used to & Would = Talking about the past

Hei hei Nice People!

I want to teach my advanced Ss the difference of used to & Would when taking about the past. I �ve explained that we can use would + infinitive in the same way as used to to talk about past habits and repeated actions. And by the Grammar reference and practice in the Ss �s book, we know that would is not used to describe past states.

1st question: What are past states? ...

In the sentence: "My granny says people used to be happier in the past." We can �t use would because we �re talking about a state, right? How about in the sentence: "Did you use to share a bedroom with your sisters?" Does the sentence express a state too? Why?

2nd question/doubt:

She used to have four pairs of sunglasses. = Is it a past habit? So can we use would and say: She would have four pairs of sunglasses?

In the Grammar reference and practice (Ss �s book): "Althoght would and used to are similar, used to simply expresses a fact, while would emphasizes that the action is typical of a person or a situation."

3rd question:

Leo didn �t use to use his mobile much. = we can �t use would because when talking about a past habit we only use would in the affirmative. BUT would is used to emphasize an action that is typical of a person. Isn �t this the case? Not using a mobile is typical of Leo, so can we write/say: Leo wouldn �t use his mobile much???

Please, please, please... I �m a bit confused! What are really the differences between used to and would?

26 Oct 2014

serzt

Why don �t you try an adverb of frequency to see if it �s a habit or not.

Can you say �I usually live in Paris � then you can �t say I �d live in Paris, can you?

The same applies to the word "share". I can naturally say "I usually share my stuff with my friends so you can of course say "I used to share a bedroom with my sisters."

If it can be repeated again and again and again then you can use �would � so you can �t say she would have. You have to use she used to have.

26 Oct 2014

yanogator

The basic thing here is that "would" is the past/conditional of "will".

Q1:

"Share" is an action, not a state.

Consider this present/future situation:

Mother to daughters, "When we visit your grandparents, you will share a bedroom."

Daughter telling her daughters about her childhood, ""When we visited our grandparents, we would share a bedroom."

If you don �t eat breakfast, you will get hungry before lunchtime.

I remember that on days I didn �t eat breakfast, I would get hungry before lunchtime.

"Would" needs a situation.

I wasn �t worried because I knew she woul have four pairs of sunglasses in her purse.

Again we need a situation.

Leo won �t use his cell phone if he can use e-mail.

Leo wouldn �t use his cell phone if he Could use e-mail.

Bruce

26 Oct 2014