The difference between USED TO and WOULD

Tuesday November 26th 2013

Question

The difference between USED TO and WOULD — Trinh Pham, Vietnam

Answer

Used to and would are both use to describe something that happened regularly in the past

but doesn't happen any longer, as shown in the following two sentences about quitting
smoking:

1. I used to smoke, but I quit last year. 

2. Whenever I craved a cigarette, I would chew gum instead. 

 
However, there are two important differences between used to and would. The
first difference is that would should not be used unless it has already been established
that the time frame is in the past, while used to does not require this. This example,
with used to at the beginning, sounds natural:

 I used to watch cartoons every Saturday morning when I was very little. Now I
rarely watch TV.

However, when used to is replaced with would, the same example becomes awkward
and ungrammatical: 

 *I would watch cartoons every Saturday morning when I was very little. Now I

rarely watch TV.

But if the past time frame is established before would appears, would sounds fine. 

 When I was little, I would get up and watch cartoons every Saturday morning. Now I
rarely watch TV.

 
The second difference between used to and would is that would is not used with stative
verbs such as love, be, understand, and feel. Compare these two sentences with the stative
verb love:  

1. When I was a student, I used to love sleeping late on the weekends. (natural

and grammatical)
2. *When I was a student, I would love sleeping late on weekends. (awkward
and ungrammatical)

To summarize, the use of would is more restricted than that of used to. Therefore, if you
aren't sure which one to use, it's best to choose used to. 
 Past habit – used to/would/past simple
When we talk about things that happened in the past but don’t happen anymore
we can do it in different ways.

Used to

 We used to live in New York when I was a kid.

 There didn’t use to be a petrol station there. When was it built?

We can use ‘used to’ to talk about past states ….

 I used to go swimming every Thursday when I was at school.

 I used to smoke but I gave up a few years ago.

… or we can use ‘used to’ to talk about repeated past actions

Remember that ‘used to’ is only for past states/actions that don’t happen now –
we can’t use it for things that still happen now. Also, ‘used to + infinitive’ should
not be confused with ‘be/get used to + ‘ing’ form’ – this is covered in a
separate section.

Would

 Every Saturday I would go on a long bike ride.

 My teachers would always say “Sit down and shut up!”

We can use ‘would’ to talk about repeated past actions.

Often either ‘would’ or ‘used to’ is possible. Both of these sentences are possible.

 Every Saturday, I would go on a long bike ride.

 Every Saturday I used to go on a long bike ride.

However, only ‘used to’ is possible when we talk about past states.

 We used to live in New York when I was a kid.

 We would live in New York when I was a kid.

Past simple

 We went/used to go/would go to the same beach every summer.

We can use the past simple in the same way as ‘used to’ and ‘would’ to talk
about repeated past actions.

 I had/used to have a dog called Charlie.

 We can also use the past simple for past states.

 I went to Egypt in 1988.

However, if something happened only once we can’t use ‘used to’ or ‘would’ – we
must use the past simple.