Used to - structure and usage.

Structure of used to.

Affirmative.

Always used in "ed" form: used to + infinitive:

I used to go to the zoo a lot when I was child.

The London police used to walk the streets without guns.

Question forms.

The question form can take auxiliary did or without did. Note the infinitive form use to with auxiliary did:

1) Did + subject + use to + infinitive?

Did you use to play Monopoly?

Negative forms.

Like the question form, the negative also has two possible forms. The did not structure is less formal:

1) Subject + did not + used to + infinitive.
2) Subject + used not to + infinitive (also: usedn't to as a contracted form). Please note, this structure is now considered old-fashioned.

I didn't use to study very hard at school.

I used not to (usedn't to) study very hard at school.

Other words can also make a negative form with used to so "d" is added:

We never used to drink champagne when we were poor.

I hardly ever used to do it.

How to use used to.

Habitual past actions.

Used to talks about habitual past actions that we do not do now:

I used to help my father bring the cows home (= I helped many times).

On Christmas morning, we used to open our presents by the fireplace (= we opened them by the fireplace every Christmas).

When I was studying at university, I didn't use to watch the television very much (= I watched television very little).

With past verbs of state.

Used to is also used with stative verbs such as: like, love, have (possession), be, live, want, etc:

Did you use to like peanut butter when you were young?

I used to love going to the cinema on Saturday mornings.

We didn't use to have a car in the old days.

There used to be a field here. Now there are houses.

Position of adverbs with used to.

Adverbs that can normally be placed before the verb can also go after used in the used to structure:

We always used to have roast chicken on Sundays.*

We used always to have roast chicken on Sundays.

*This adverb position with used to is used more in informal English.

Habitual actions and stative verbs in the present.

We never use used to in the present. To talk about present actions or states, we use present simple including a word like usually:

We usually go out on Thursday evenings.

I often like to watch the football.

Confusion with used to + infinitive with "ing".

Do not confuse used to + infinitive with be + used to + ing form of the infinitive:

After dinner, we used to listen to our father's jokes (= we listened to them after every dinner).

After dinner, we were used to listening to our father's jokes (= we were accustomed to them).

Used to compared with would for past habitual actions...

Be used to and get used to...

Exercises on used to...