“I used to…” & “I would…”: Talking about the past in English

Hey. I have a question for you. Hi. Hi, board. How's it going? This is a very curious thing

that I've been thinking about as a native speaker of English, and I want to know what

you think. We have two ways to talk about our past -- well, probably more than two,

but let's not get into that. The two phrases that we use a lot in English are "used to"

and we use "would". So, for example, I can say, "Oh, you know what? I used to drink Guinness

every Saturday." Or I can say, "I would drink Guinness every Saturday." And I was thinking,

"What's the difference when I would say 'used to' or 'would'?" Now, another reason why this

is difficult is because when I would say this normally or quickly, I wouldn't say, "Used

to"; I would say, "Used to". So when you hear native people speaking, you're going to hear

them say, "Used to. Oh, I used to do that. I used to play football. I used to do this.

I used to, used to, used to." And what is "used to"? "Used to" is "used to". Okay? We

use this to talk about our past habits, but it's super important to understand that we

don't do them now. And "would" we're going to use for repeated actions or routines. But,

again, both of these are in the past. "Used to" or "used to" is also going to have a time

period. So we're going to know exactly that the action has stopped.

So let's look at these two sentences. If I say -- in a very natural way, I'd say, "We

used to go to the sea or the ocean when I was young." If I compare this to, "We would

go to the sea every summer." When you look at this, you think, "Oh, you know what? They're

talking about the past. I don't really see a big difference." And you're right. It isn't

a huge difference, but there is a definite difference. When we speak English quickly,

we don't say, "We would". We say, "We'd". "We'd"? Yeah, "we'd". "Oh, we'd go to the

sea every summer." "We would". So we say, "We'd". "Oh, when I was a kid, we'd go to

the sea every summer." So look at the difference. "We used to go to the sea when I was young."

This tells me that I'm not young anymore, and because I'm not young, my time period,

because I'm not young, my time period, I finished doing the action. But if I said the sentence

like, "We would go to the sea every summertime", it's like I'm reminiscing or I'm telling you

a story about what I did in the past as a repeated action or a routine. Maybe every

summer, your family would jump in the car and go on a road trip. "Oh, you know what?

We would drive for hours and then go nowhere because Dad got lost all the time." But if

I say like, "Oh, we used to go on road trips", it has the connotation, which means the meaning,

the hidden meaning, that you don't do that anymore. But if I say, "We would go to the

sea every summer", I don't know if you still do that or not. So remember it like this.

"Used to" means you did something in the past, you don't do it anymore. And "would", you're

just talking about repeated actions and routines, and we're not sure if you do it anymore. It's

not important. What's important is that you did do it, and you're telling me about it.

I used to -- that's how we say it quickly, "used to". I used to smoke, but I don't now

because I use "used to". If I said, "I would smoke" or "I'd smoke at the cottage", this

is something that I would do as a routine, and you don't know if I still do that. You

have no idea.

Let's look at these two examples. What do you think would be the best words to fill

in? So we can say, "She used to eat meat" or "She would eat meat". Probably the answer

is going to be "used to". So, "She used to eat meat". It's telling me that she did it,

and now she doesn't. Maybe she's a vegetarian or vegan now. What about this one? "He'd drive

100K every day". I wanted to say "drove", but do you think we would say, "He used to

drive 100 kilometers every day" or "He would drive 100 kilometers every day"? Because we

have the word "every day", we're talking about a routine, so it's more natural to say, "He

would drive" or "He'd". "Oh, yeah. He'd drive 100K every day." Now, we don't know. Is he

driving 100K? It's not important. Maybe he doesn't even have a car, but it's not important.

What's important is that we know we did this as a routine, but if I say, "He used to drive",

it means he's not doing it anymore. So, this is something for more advanced English thinkers

or English learners. The next time you're listening to people in a conversation when

they use "would" or "used to", pay attention. Figure out if what they're talking about is

as a routine, so you can use "would", or if it's something that they did in the past but

don't do anymore. And what about you? What are some things that you used to do, maybe

when you lived in another country or when you were younger? And what are some things

that you would do as a routine when you were younger in the past? "Oh, I would go on my

bike for hours, ride around. It was great." Well, I'm out of here. It was nice talking

to you. Bye-bye.