HABITUAL BEHAVIOUR Kimie Koga

Used to / Would / Past simple We use used to to describe habits in the past. When I was a child, I used to play volleyball every Saturday. Did you use to visit your grandparents at the weekends? We also use it to describe a situation in the past that is deifferent now. There didn’t use to be a cinema in this town.

Used to / Would / Past simple Note the different spelling of used to in interrogative and negative sentences. We don’t normally use used to when we say how long a situation or habit in the past continued; we use the past simple. She made the same journey to work every day for twenty years.

Used to / Would / Past simple We can use would to talk about habits in the past. When I lived on the coast, I’d go swimming in the sea every morning. However, we can’t use would to talk about situations in the past; we use used to or the past simple.

Used to / Would / Past simple If we stress the word would, it implies that we found the habit annoying. I had to get rid of our cat. Well, it would leave dead mice at the bottom of my bed!

Present simple / Present continuous We use the present simple to talk about habits in the present. We use it with or without an adverb of frequency. Harry often goes shopping with his girlfriend. They have lunch in a café.

Present simple / Present continuous We can also use the present continuous to talk about habits, especially (but not always) ones that we find annoying. We must include a suitable adverb: always, constantly, continually, forever. He’s constantly saying how intelligent he is.

Will We can use will to talk about habitual behaviour. The meaning is present, not future. It´s 7 o’clock. Sam will be on his way home from work now. Don’t phone me now – they’ll be having dinner.

Will If we stress the word will, it implies that we find the behaviour annoying. I hate going in Dan’s room. He will leave his dirty clothes all over the floor!

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