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Glite Dictionary
🙂 Familiar with ⏳ Did in the past
used to

used to

1.3
To show that something was true or happened often in the past but is not true now
  • phrasal verb
  • /juːst tuː/
translation icon : soler
  • I used to live in New York before moving to London.

Examples

  • I used to live in a small town before moving to the city.

  • I used to play tennis every Saturday.

  • She used to play tennis every weekend with her friends.

  • They used to believe that the company would never close.

  • Did she use to live in Paris?

  • He used to go fishing with his grandfather every summer.

  • They used to have a pet dog, but it passed away last year.

Antonyms

still
∞ 1.0

Continuing to happen now

to continue
586 1.0

To stay in the same job or role

Surface Forms

used to past
use to infinitive

Morphology

used + to

There is a clear relation between 'used' (past/adj form of 'use' meaning accustomed) and the MWE meaning, but the grammaticalized pattern 'used to + (verb)' that expresses a past habitual state or being "accustomed" is not fully derivable from simply knowing the words 'use/used' and 'to'. Because the particle 'to' and the past-marked form combine into a conventionalized tense/aspect construction rather than a literal composition, a B1 learner may need prior exposure to reliably interpret it.

Etymology

The phrase used to comes from the idea of being used or 'accustomed' to do something, like a tool you used many times. Saying 'I used to live in New York' shows a past habit, so it means something happened often before but does not happen now.