Modal forms expressing habit

will: He will always complain if he gets the opportunity

would: When we were students we would often stay up all night used to Jackie used to make all her own dresses Fred never used to be so bad-tempered

11.59 Notes on the form of 'used to'

1 Used to occurs only in the simple past form.

2 Questions and negatives with used to may be formed without the auxiliary do:

Used he to ,live in Manchester? You usedn't (used not) to smoke These forms are relatively rare. Usedn't is probably avoided because it is difficult to say and spell. Did and didn t are more commonly used to form questions and negatives. In such instances, use is often treated as an infinitive in writing: Did he use to live in Manchester? You didn't use to smoke In spoken English, we cannot tell whether a speaker is saying Did he use to or Did he used to, since what we hear is /ju:st/ not /ju:zd/ as in used (= made use of). The forms did (he) use to and (he) didn't use to are logical on groundsof grammatical form (compare didn't do, Not 'didn't did*/*didn't done*). We can avoid the problem of the negative by using never [compare > 7.40.1]: Fred never used to be so difficult.

3 Question tags [> 13.17-18] and short responses are formed with
didn't, rather than usedn't:
He used to live in Manchester, didn't he?
Note these short answers, etc. [compare > 13.5]:
Did you use to smoke? - Yes, I did or Yes, / used to

- No, I didn't or No, I didn't use to (No, I used not to is rare.) He used to live in Manchester and so did I (Not *used*)

Past habit: 'used to' and the simple past

Used to refers only to the past. If we wish to refer to present habit, we must use the simple present tense (Not */ use to*) [> 9.6-8]. We rely on used to to refer to habits that we no longer have, so there is a contrast between past and present. This contrast is often emphasized with expressions like but now, but not any more/any longer which combine with the simple present: / used to smoke, but I don't any more/any longer I never used to eat a large breakfast, but I do now

However, used to can refer simply to discontinued habit without implying a contrast with the present. For be used to [> 10.26.1, 16.56]. If we wish to use the simple past to refer to past habit, we always need a time reference. Compare:

Modals to express habit

/ collected stamps when I was a child (simple past + time

reference) / used to collect stamps (when I was a child) (time reference not necessary with used to, but may be included) Used to is not possible with since [> 7.31] and for [> 7.32]: / lived in the country for three years (Not 'used to live*)

For the past progressive referring to repeated actions [> 9.20.4],