Used to – Curso de ingles: Como expresar rutinas en el pasado

December 21, 2010Curso Pre-Intermediate, Grammar

Curso de INGLES en linea gratuito – Aprender Ingles en INTERNET- LECCION 34 curso PRE INTERMEDIO

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We talked about how to use the past simple past continuous (LESSON 32) Today we are going to learn how to use the structure or form “USED TO”

Hoy aprenderemos como hablar de rutinas en el pasado. Veremos como usar la estructura USED TO y de que forma nos puede servir para comunicarnos mejor en inglés

Structure and form (Table 1)

USED TO
Positive Negative Question
I used to playfootball I didn’t use to play football Did you use to play football?
She used to smoke She didn’t use to smoke Did she use to smoke?
They used to go dancing They didn’t use to go dancing Did they use to go dancing ?

As we can see, it is used with the PAST SIMPLE structure.

Positive Form

Subject + [USED TO + Infinitive] + Complement

–          My wife USED TOPLAY volleyball.

Negative Form

Subject + [didn’t USE TO + Infinitive] + Complement

–          Peter didn’t use to drink whiskey.

Question Form

Question Word + [did + Subject + USE TO + Infinitive] + Complement

–          What sport did Maria use to practice?

–          How much money did you use to spend at the casino?

–          Did Juan use to play the violin?

USE:

We use the structure USED TO to talk about PAST HABITS and ROUTINES.

Please remember that when we talk about present habits and routines we use the PRESENT SIMPLE. There is no present form of the structure USED TO. Look at the following table

Table 2

Present habits and routines Past habits and routines
I get up at 6:00 am I used to get up at 6:00 am
Santiago smokes Santiago used to smoke
My mother cooks My mother used to cook
They don’t play tennis They didn’t use to play tennis
Juan doesn’t teach Juan didn’t use to teach
Does Tina work for IBM? Did Tina use to work for IBM?
Where do they live? Where did they use to live?

If we have the following sentence

Brian used to work at the bank.

The present form of the sentence is:

Brian works at the bank CORRECT

Brian use to work at the bank INCORRECT

THERE IS NO PRESENT FORM OF THE STRUCTURE USED TO. REMEMBER THAT TO EXPRESS PRESENT HABITS AND ROUTINES WE USE THE PRESENT SIMPLE.

Online Exercises and Extra resources

http://www.eslteachersboard.com/pdf/The-use-of-USED-TO.pdf

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode38/quiz.pdf

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/usedto.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1346_gramchallenge15/



http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/learnit/learnitv22.shtml