Talking about past habits

To talk about repeated past habits, we can use:

• Past Simple
• Past Continuous
• used to
• would

1. Past Simple

We use the past simple to talk about states, habits or repeated actions in the past.

When I was young, I always spent the holidays with my grandparents.

I went to work by bus when I worked in France.

She went to lots of concerts.

2. Past Continuous

We use the Past Continuous to describe repeated actions, usually annoying habits in the past (this is the counterpart of the Present Continuous for annoying habits in the present). We often use frequency adverbs, such as always and often.

He was always singing loud in the shower.

He was often having loud parties in the middle of the night.

3. Used to (do)

We use used to to talk about habits, repeated actions and states in the past.

We cannot use used to to talk about actions at a specific time or to talk about the number of times we did something. For these meanings, we use the Past Simple.

Peter didn’t use to smoke so much when he lived in the USA.

Did you use to play in the street when you were a kid?

Jack used to turn red every time the teacher asked him to stand in front of the class.

Note: With negatives, and questions, “used to” becomes: “use to”: didn’t use to / did you use to (do)?

4. Would (do)

We use would to talk about habits and repeated actions in the past. However, we cannot use would to talk about states.

We would visit my grandparents every weekend.

My mother would bake cakes

We would live in Germany those years. (state)