use to
fixed phrase.fixed phrase. you use this to talk about something that happened often in the past but does not happen now.
fixed phrase. a semi-modal construction used to express habitual actions or states in the past that have since ceased. It functions as a marginal modal or a lexical auxiliary depending on the syntactic analysis.
I used to play football every Saturday when I was younger.
She used to live in London, but she moved to a small village last year for a quieter life.
The building used to serve as a local library before it was repurposed into a modern community hub for digital arts.
always followed by the base form of a verb.
contrast with 'be used to' (familiarity) and 'get used to' (process of becoming familiar); emphasize that 'used to' has no present tense form.
I didn't used to like spinach.I didn't use to like spinach.in negative sentences and questions with 'did', the 'd' is dropped because 'did' already indicates the past tense.
Last updated July 26, 2026