I didn\u2019t use to like reading books about business. I used to not enjoy any non-fiction books. I mostly used to read mystery books, and nothing more. I used to live in a small world, didn\u2019t I? Now, I read books about teaching English and about business. And I still read mystery books. What did you use to read? Do you read? different things now?<\/p>\n
We all have changes in our lives. We have certain habits when we are young, like\u00a0staying up really late at night, and those habits sometimes change. When we are older, we sometimes want or need to talk about how our habits, thoughts, and feelings are different now. In English we do this with past simple tense and \u201cused to.\u201d This post will tell you how.<\/p>\n
If you want to use \u201cused to,\u201d here are\u00a0the sentence structures.<\/p>\n
Positive: subject + used to + base verb + object<\/p>\n
Negative 1: subject + didn\u2019t + use to + base verb + object<\/p>\n
Negative 2: subject + used to + not + base verb + object<\/p>\n
Question 1: did\/didn\u2019t + subject + use to + base verb + object<\/p>\n
Question 2: question word + did\/didn\u2019t + subject + use to + base verb + object<\/p>\n
Tag Question 1: subject + used to + base verb + object + didn\u2019t + subject repeated<\/p>\n
Tag Question 2: subject + didn\u2019t + use to + base verb + object + did + subject repeated<\/p>\n
These structures are useful if you want to talk about something that was true before, (in the past), and is not true now, (in the present). Or you can use them\u00a0if you want to talk about something that was true before and is still true now. In my story above, I told you about something that was true about me.<\/p>\n
I mostly used to read mystery books, and nothing more.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t use to like reading books about business.<\/p>\n
I used to not enjoy non-fiction books.<\/p>\n
You can see that it is possible to use negative and positive sentences to do this. And I used a tag question to confirm that you were thinking that my world was very small then.<\/p>\n
I used to live in a small world, didn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n
Very often, when we write or say sentences with \u201cused to\u201d for talking about the past, we use the present tense afterword for explaining what is different now.<\/p>\n
Now, I read books about teaching English and about business.<\/p>\n
And I still read mystery books.<\/p>\n
You know what I am going to write. It is time for practice. In my story, I asked, \u201cwhat did you used to read?\u201d Tell me in a comment. Or you can leave a comment to tell me another habit you used to have. Did you use to be very athletic, write poetry, etc?<\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reading Books I didn\u2019t use to like reading books about business. I used to not enjoy any non-fiction books. I mostly used to read mystery books, and nothing more. I used to live in a small world, didn\u2019t I? Now, I read books about teaching English and about business. And I still read mystery books.
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"sync_status":"none","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","castos_file_data":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,28,1],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-for-students-of-english","category-grammar-explanation","category-home"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/English-Like-An-Eagle-2.jpg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle\/id1534350389","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_play":{"key":"google_play","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG9sbHl0cmVlZW5nbGlzaC5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0","label":"Google Play","class":"google_play","icon":"google-play.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaG9sbHl0cmVlZW5nbGlzaC5jb20vZmVlZC9wb2RjYXN0","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"pandora":{"key":"pandora","url":"","label":"Pandora","class":"pandora","icon":"pandora.png"},"rss":{"key":"rss","url":"","label":"RSS","class":"rss","icon":"rss.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2wxVzF27hyETfyop2KgzEs","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"youtube":{"key":"youtube","url":"","label":"YouTube","class":"youtube","icon":"youtube.png"},"itunes":{"key":"itunes","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle\/id1534350389","label":"iTunes","class":"itunes","icon":"itunes.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/www.hollytreeenglish.com\/home\/feed\/podcast\/english-like-an-eagle","embedCode":"Talk About Life Changes with “Used to”<\/a><\/blockquote>