Used To vs Would Exercises

Both used to and would describe things that happened regularly in the past, but they are not interchangeable. Used to works for both past habits (repeated actions) and past states: "I used to play football" (action) and "I used to live in London" (state). Would can only describe past habits — repeated actions: "I would play football every weekend" is correct, but "I would live in London" is wrong because living somewhere is a state, not a repeated action.

State verbs — such as be, have, know, like, live, believe, belong, and want — describe situations rather than actions and cannot be used with "would" for past habits. If you are unsure whether a verb is a state verb, ask: "Can I watch someone doing this?" If not, it is probably a state verb and needs "used to." Another important point: "would" for past habits usually needs a past time reference first, such as "When I was a child..." or "In those days..." to set the context. Without this, the listener may confuse it with the conditional "would."