Expressing Habits and Typical Behavior: Will, Would, and Used To

1. Present Habits and Typical Behavior: Will#

While will is commonly associated with the future, it is also used to describe typical, predictable, or habitual behavior in the present. It describes things that a person regularly does and is expected to do.

• Structure: Subject + will + Verb 1
• Example: She will sit at her desk for hours without saying a word. (This is her typical habit).
• Example: Every morning, my cat will wake me up by licking my face. (A predictable routine).

2. Past Habits: Would and Used To#

To describe habits, routines, and states in the past that no longer happen today, we use would and the semi-modal used to.

A. Would (Repeated Actions in the Past)

• Structure: Subject + would + Verb 1
• Use: Used for repeated actions and routines in the past. It gives a nostalgic or storytelling tone.
• Example: When we were young, we would spend every weekend playing in the woods.
• Example: My grandfather would tell us stories before bedtime.

B. Used To (Repeated Actions and Past States)

• Structure: Subject + used to + Verb 1
• Use: Used for both repeated past actions AND past states (permanent situations/feelings).
• Example: I used to live in London. (Past state).
• Example: She used to play tennis every Tuesday. (Past habit).

3. Important Restriction: Would vs. Used To#

There is a critical rule when choosing between would and used to for the past:

• Used to can be used with both action verbs (activities) and stative verbs (states like be, live, like, have).

• Would can only be used with action verbs. It cannot be used with stative verbs to describe past states.

• Correct: I used to have a dog.

• Incorrect: I would have a dog. (Grammatically incorrect for a past state).

• Correct: She used to be shy.

• Incorrect: She would be shy. (Incorrect).

Next, we will explore Requests to learn how to ask someone to do something for us using polite modal verbs.