The construction “USED TO + INFINITIVE” in English
The construction used to + infinitiveis used to express a repeated action that happened regularly in the past and is no longer performed. This construction does not change according to persons and numbers and tenses. It can form a verb in the past tense with the addition of the words “before”, “once”, “usually”, etc.
The general scheme of using used to for different forms is as follows:
- positive – used to + bare infinitive
- negative – didn’t + use to + verb
- question – Did + subject + use to + verb
The verb used is pronounced as [ju:st]. It should be distinguished from the past tense form of the verb use, which is written the same but pronounced [ju:zd]:
- We used to play football when we were young
- I used to like apples, but I never eat them now
Usually this construction is used in affirmative sentences. In interrogatives, used is placed before the subject:
- Used he often to sit in his favourite armchair?
- Used she to like apples in her childhood?
To form a negative sentence, the particle not is added to used [‘ju:snt]:
- Не usedn’t to smoke in his youth
In modern English, questions and objections with this construction are mainly formed with the verb did:
- Did he use to live at the seaside?
- I didn’t use to meet him very often