WOULD AND USED TO

Tense: I would smoke has more of a present/future feel

I would smoke a lot if my girlfriend didn't nag me.
I used to smoke a lot until my girlfriend nagged me.

Hi bubu

There is very little difference between them. They all mean the same, that is "In the past I smoked a lot".

"Would" is a little more formal, "used to" is common (but quite correct).

Or you could miss out "used to" or "would" all together provided you used the past tense of the verb to smoke, as you have in the third example.

Actually hingehead is right

"used to" definitely refers to the past
"would" can refer to the past in a more formal sense, or it could be a conditional sense of something in the future. "I would smoke" could mean I smoked cigarettes in the past, or it could mean "I would smoke cigarettes if I could afford it".

I smoked a lot is the same as "used to" i.e. certainly in the past, no possible hint at future behaviour.

I learn everyday about grammar, first found it difficult , but now sound fun.That's right.I'll write what I know,

- I used to smoke ( in the past ), I don't smoke now.

- I would smoke ( conditional ) if someone seduced me to.

- I smoked a lot ( past simple ). ( the habit of smoking maybe still )


Hope I'm right

navigator

i agree with you except one

grammar is very difficult and dreary to me!

Continuously/continually?


The idea of habit hits closer to home to me, though the distinction is clearly quite subtle. Perhaps the answer can be found in the now classic puzzler of "continuously versus continually", wherein both describe repetition, but the former refers to an action without interruption while the latter to discrete or intermittent events. In our case, "used to smoke" typically refers to the indivisible habit of smoking, "would smoke" refers to the discrete smoking events--which may constitute a habit, and "smoked" refers to an event without implying a pattern.

For contextual clarification, think of the following questions:
- "How did you do to handle the stress?"
- "What bad habits did you have?"
- "What did you do?"
Of the following answers which would you use for which question?
- "I would smoke."
- "I used to smoke."
- "I smoked."

While I agree with Steve (as 41oo) as to their similarity of tense (past), there seem to be some nuances as far as implied levels of habitualness.

Hi everybody, forgot to say welcome bubu, maxbright, Valpower.