Could someone solve this exercise, please?
In which of the following sentences can you use both "would" and "used to"? Why? In which sentences is there only one possibility?
1) When I was younger, we used to/would go into town on Saturday night.
2) We would/used to spend most of Saturday afternoon getting ready
3) My friend Diana would/used to live only a few minutes walk from my house
4) She used to/would come over to my house after lunch
5) We used to/would wash our hair and decide what to wear
6) We used to/would think we looked really glamorous in our flared trousers, platform shoes and little tops.
7) My older brother would/used to give us a lift into town and arrange to pick us up later
Search from various English teachers...
Answers · 3
2
David,
"Used to" refers to past habits and states which were true in the past but are not true any more. It can be used with both action verbs and state verbs.
"Would" describes repeated past actions, but not states. It can only be used with action verbs.
For instance,
I used to be illiterate when I was young, but I learned to read. CORRECT
I would be illiterate when I was young, but I learned to read. INCORRECT because "to be" is a stative verb.
I used to climb trees when I was young. CORRECT
I would climb trees when I was young. CORRECT because "to climb" is an action verb.
Now that you know the rules, you should be able to find the answers all by yourself. :)
1
1) When I was younger, we used to/would go into town on Saturday night.
----> When I was younger, we used to go into town on Sat night.
Used to, because its a Past Tense. ^^
2) We would/used to spend most of Saturday afternoon getting ready.
------> We used to spend most of Sat afternoon of getting ready.
3) My friend Diana would/used to live only a few minutes walk from my house.
-------> My friend Diana used to live only a few minute walk from my house.
(My friend Diana is living just a few minute walk from my house.)
4) She used to/would come over to my house after lunch.
-----> She would come over to my house after lunch.
(Future Tense)
5) We used to/would wash our hair and decide what to wear.
------> We WILL wash our hair and decide what to wear.
6) We used to/would think we looked really glamorous in our flared trousers, platform shoes and little tops.
------> We used to think we looked really glamorous in our.......
7) My older brother would/used to give us a lift into town and arrange to pick us up later.
-------> My older brother will give us a lift into town and arrange to pick us up later.
:. I can see, that all of the sentences are fragmented. It is all broken. So, I cannot detect what are you pointing out. If it is, present, past or future.
^^,
"WOULD" is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb.
We use would mainly to:
talk about the past
talk about the future in the past
express the conditional mood
"USED"
We use 'used to' for something that happened regularly in the past but no longer happens.
We also use it for something that was true but no longer is.
We use 'to be used to doing' to say that something is normal, not unusual.
We use 'to get used to doing' to talk about the process of something becoming normal for us.
:) hope you understand the differences.
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