We can use will (for the present) and would (for the past) to talk about characteristic behaviour or habits, or about things that are or were always true:
• Every day Dan will come home from work and turn on the TV.
• During the war, people would eat all kinds of things that we don't eat now.
• A baby will recognise its mother's voice soon after it is born.
• Early passenger planes wouldn't hold more than 30 passengers.
We don't use would in this way to talk about a particular occasion in the past. Compare:
• Each time I gave him a problem he would solve it for me. and
• Last night I gave him a problem and he solved it for me. {not ...he would solve it...)
In speech, we can stress will or would to criticise people's characteristic behaviour or habits:
• She will leave all the lights on in the house when she goes out.
• I was happy when Sam left. He would talk about people behind their backs.
When we use stressed would in this way, we can also use it to talk about a particular occasion in the past. We suggest that what happened was predictable because it was typical of a person's behaviour:
• 'Jackie says she can't help because she's got a lot of work on.' 'Well she would say that - she
always uses that excuse.'
If we want to talk about things that happened repeatedly in the past, but don't happen now, we can use would or used to + infinitive. Used to is more common in informal English:
• We would / used to lend him money when he was unemployed.
• Tim would / used to visit his parents every other weekend.
We use used to but not would when we talk about past states that have changed:
• The factory used to be in the city centre.
• I used to smoke heavily when I was at university.
When we use would we need to mention a specific time or set of occasions.
Compare:
• We used to play in the garden, {not We would play...)
• Whenever we went to my Uncle Frank's house, we would / used to play in the garden.
We don't use either used to or would when we say exactly how many times something happened, how long something took, or that something happened at a particular time:
• We visited Switzerland four times during the 1970s.
• She went on holiday to the Bahamas last week.
Study how we normally make questions and negatives with used to in spoken English:
• Did your children use to sleep well when they were babies?
• I didn't use to like visiting the dentist when I was young.
These forms are sometimes written as '...did ... used to...' and '...didn't used to...', but some people think this is incorrect.
However, in more formal spoken and written English the following negative and question forms are also used, although this question form is now rare:
• There used not to be so much traffic, {more likely is There didn't use to be...)
• Used you to go to university with the Evans brothers? {more likely is Did you use to...?)
Notice that nowadays very few people use used to in tags:
• He used to play cricket for Australia, didn't he? {rather than ..., usedn't he?)
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