# use to

CEFR B1 · Fixed phrase

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/use-to
Updated: 2026-07-26

## Definition

you use this to talk about something that happened often in the past but does not happen now.

For teachers: 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.

## Examples

- 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.

## Pitfalls

- Not "I didn't used to like spinach." but "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.

## Usage notes

- always followed by the base form of a verb.
- Teaching tip: contrast with 'be used to' (familiarity) and 'get used to' (process of becoming familiar); emphasize that 'used to' has no present tense form.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.