Giles Parker English Academy Podcasts

'used to' for past habits The text is called ‘Guys used to wear hats’ and this talks about – yep, you guessed it – how people used to wear hats once upon a time, but it seems this is no longer true. But first let’s talk about the grammar, used to. You know how the past tense talks about a finished or competed action that we also know when it happened, like I ate cereal for breakfast? Well, used to talks about past routines or past habits or past situations that were regular but that don’t happen anymore now. So,’ I used to wear short pants when I went to school (but I don’t anymore)’. Or ‘I used to work out every Saturday (but I don’t anymore)’. Used to shows the difference between the past and the present, saying that something was regular but it stopped. You can make this clearer by adding a negative phrase like ‘I don’t now’, or ‘I don’t anymore’.  You can also use it to talk about states that are no longer true, like ‘I used to be fat but then I went on this great e