How to use “USED TO” in English

Hello, my name is Emma, and I have a very exciting video for you today.

In today's video, we are going to learn about a very important term we use when we're talking

about the past.

That term is "used to".

So, we use this term, like I said, a lot about talking about the past.

In today's video, we're going to have fun with it.

I'm going to talk about how I do things now and then I'm going to use "used to" to talk

about what I did in the past, okay?

So, you're going to learn about my fashion, my hobbies, all sorts of things that have

changed over time.

So, let's get started by talking about fashion.

Now, I usually wear a lot of flower dresses.

I wear a lot of dresses, I love flowers the most, so if you watch a lot of my videos,

you'll probably notice Emma really likes flowers, and that's true.

That's now, but in the past, a long time ago, I didn't wear flower dresses at all.

What did I wear?

Well, I used to wear very, very short skirts.

I would never wear these short skirts anymore, but in the past, I used to wear short skirts.

So, just to talk about grammar for a second and we'll go back to the fashion, you'll notice

what I'm doing is I'm saying "I used to" and then right after I have the verb, which in

this case is "wear", and I'm not doing anything to the verb.

I'm not adding "-ed" to it, I'm not changing the tense, I'm just keeping it as you would

in in the "now" form, I'm just adding "I used to" in front of it, so again, I wear flower

dresses now, I used to wear short skirts.

What else did I use to do, or what about what I do now?

Let's go back to used to.

I used to wear a lot of hats.

I loved hats.

I had hats that went on the side of my head, I had hats that faced forward, I used to wear

a lot of hats.

I also used to wear way too much makeup, okay?

There's something called eyeliner which is what you put underneath your eyes.

I used to wear too much eyeliner.

I used to wear a lot of orange.

I actually found this in my closet today.

I don't usually wear this color.

Nowadays, I don't wear this, but I wanted to show you how I used to dress so I decided

to wear it today.

So, I used to wear colorful orange clothes like this as well as I used to wear a lot

of black.

Sounds like Halloween, doesn't it?

Orange and black.

Let me show you a shirt that I found in my closet of something I used to wear.

So, this kind of reminds me of something a witch might wear.

I'm going to put it on for old time's sake.

Here we go.

Probably doesn't match the orange, but yeah, I used to have these giant sleeves, okay?

Yeah, so what do you think of how I used to dress?

What else did I use to wear?

I used to wear these jean pants, so they were jeans.

They were called JNCO pants, and these pants were the fattest pants you could imagine.

Each leg was like - okay, so they were almost like bell bottoms, but everything was fat

on them.

If you want, you can google them to see what I mean, but I used to wear these fat pants,

or JNCO pants.

Let's talk about jewelry.

Now, I wear - sometimes pearls, not real pearls, but I do like pearls, so I wear pearl necklaces,

okay?

Am I wearing one right now?

No.

Sometimes, I wear pearl necklaces.

What about used to?

What did I use to wear?

Well, let me show you.

This is the necklace I used to wear in high school.

It was given to me by my first boyfriend, Tim.

So, it's unlikely that Tim is watching and I haven't talked to him in years, but if you

are watching, Tim, I kept the first necklace you ever gave me, so this is the necklace

I used to wear.

So, a shiny metal ball necklace.

What about hair?

Well now, I have straight hair.

But what about in the past?

When I was younger, I used to have - so again, I'm not changing the verb - I used to have

braids, okay?

So, I had one braid here, one braid here, and I looked like Pippi Longstocking, if you

know who that is, she's a cartoon character, so I used to wear braids.

What about for hobbies?

What did I do?

Well, now, I watch YouTube, okay?

I listen to music on YouTube, I watch different YouTubers, I do a lot of things on YouTube.

But what about in the past?

Well, in the past, I used to listen to CDs.

I used to spend a lot of money in high school on CDs.

What else did I used to do for fun?

Well, let me show you.

Does anyone remember what this is?

So, this is a Gameboy Color.

I used to love playing this, and this is the game, Pok�mon.

So, I used to love Pok�mon and I used to love this game.

But now, I don't have time to play Gameboy, unfortunately, and this doesn't work anymore,

but I used to play Gameboy.

Now, for fun, I read.

I read a lot of books, I read magazines, I go on the internet, but I used to play Gameboy.

What about with drinks?

Well, now, nowadays, I drink tea.

I drink a lot of tea.

Tea is my favorite drink.

But what about in the past?

In the past, I used to drink a lot of Coke.

I used to eat a lot of junk food.

I used to eat a lot of candy and chocolate.

Now, I try to eat healthy.

I think I used to be more fun in the past.

I think I had more fun in the past based on this.

What about celebrity crushes?

So, a crush is somebody you like.

Now, I really like Hugh Jackman.

I think he's a great actor, I think he's very handsome, I have a little crush on Hugh Jackman.

But, in the past, I used to love Leonardo DiCaprio.

I had a bedroom with all of Leonardo DiCaprio's pictures on my walls, and I would cut them

out of magazines.

I used to love and have a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio.

What about with work?

How has that changed?

Well, now, I'm a teacher on YouTube.

In the past, my first job was at a movie theatre.

So, I used to work at a movie theatre, and it was an amazing job, I loved it.

So, I hope you've learned - well, you've probably learned a lot about me and what I used to

be like - but I want you to also think about you.

What are you like now, and what did you used to do in the past that you don't do anymore,

okay?

Maybe for some of you, you used to go to Blockbuster, or rent movies.

Maybe you used to listen to a Walkman or a CD player.

Maybe you used to wear some really crazy fashion.

Maybe you used to have green hair.

I don't know, but I'll tell you this, I think it would be fun if in our comments, people

wrote a couple of things that they used to do and things that they do now and compare,

okay?

So, that's your homework, you know, tell us about what you used to do in the past and

compare it to what you do now using the words "I used to" with a verb and then whatever

it is you did.

So, thank you for watching this video.

What I like to invite you to do is come check out our website at www.engvid.com . There,

you can actually do a quiz where you can practice everything you learned in this video.

You can get a lot more practice on your own about "used to", and you can also find a lot

of other interesting material.

I'd also like to invite you to subscribe to my channel, where you can find all sorts of

things related to English including material on vocabulary, grammar, business English,

test preparations, and a whole lot more.

So, thank you for watching and until next time, take care.