Used to

Jakoś tak nam Polakom trudno przejść nad tym wyrażeniem do porządku dziennego. Nie wiemy dokładnie jak je sobie przetłumaczyć, nie rozumiemy dlaczego 'oni' w ogóle zawracają sobie głowę jakimś tam used to, skoro można prawie to samo wyrazić za pomocą zwykłego czasu przeszłego...

USED TO

Najpierw kilka przykładów (postarajcie się domyślić co used to oznacza...):

Paul now (35 years old)

Paul when he was 10 years old

Paul is 35 now. He's a sales representative. He works a lot and he is very ambitious. He is married and he has two kids. He lives in the suburbs and commutes to work every day. He drives a lot. He often travels on business. Paul loves cooking and watching football matches on TV whenever he has some free time.

20 years ago he used to go to school. He didn't use to work and he used to be rather lazy. He didn't used to be married of course or have kids. He used to live with his parents in the country and he used to cycle to school every day. He used to cycle a lot. Paul used to like sweet corn and sweets. He used to have a lot of free time 20 years ago.

That's me myself in the above photos. I used to be young. Apparently I used to love running around the house. I used to wear dresses which were usually red. I used to have short hair. I have always loved working with the blackboard (and I still love it now ;). 

Warsaw
60 years ago	Now
There didn’t use to be any supermarkets in Warsaw.	There are a lot of supermarkets in Warsaw.
There used to be fewer people in Warsaw.	There are a lot of people in Warsaw.
There didn’t use to be so much traffic.	There is a lot of traffic now.

Na pewno domyśliliście się już do tej pory, że USED TO używamy do opisywania czegoś, co robiliśmy (zazwyczaj regularnie) w przeszłości, a czego nie robimy już obecnie. Możemy też opisywać w ten sposób stany rzeczy w przeszłości pod warunkiem, że uległy one zmianie do chwili obecnej. Przykład z Warszawą pokazuje, że można opisywać to jak było kiedyś a jak już dawno nie jest.

Jak zatem przetłumaczyć USED TO na język polski?

USED TO to tak jakby ZWYKŁ, ZWYKŁA lub ZWYKŁO:

I used to have short hair. = Zwykłam mieć krótkie włosy.
I used to go to school. = Zwykłam chodzić do szkoły.



USED TO nie ma formy teraźniejszej i występuje tylko w czasie przeszłym Past Simple:

USED TO
Positive sentence	I used to like sweets.
Negative sentence	I didn’t use to work.
Question	Did you use to smoke?

Podobne zastosowanie i znaczenie ma WOULD:

I would go to school when I was a child.
Susan would go skating every winter.
My grandmother would read me books before I went to sleep.

Jest tylko jedna różnica! 
WOULD nie używamy z czasownikami opisującymi stany, czyli możemy powiedzieć:

I would ski a lot.
albo-
I used to ski a lot.

ale nie możemy powiedzieć:

I would have short hair.

tylko-

I used to have short hair.


Na koniec piosenka przewodnia z USED TO w roli głównej ;)

Gotye feat. Kimbra  'Somebody I used to know'

Now and then I think of when we were together

Like when you said you felt so happy you could die

Told myself that you were right for me

But felt so lonely in your company

But that was love and it's an ache I still remember

You can get addicted to a certain kind of sadness

Like resignation to the end, always the end

So when we found that we could not make sense

Well you said that we would still be friends

But I'll admit that I was glad that it was over

But you didn't have to cut me off

Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing 

And I don't even need your love

But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough

No you didn't have to stoop so low

Have your friends collect your records and then change your number

I guess that I don't need that though

Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over

But had me believing it was always something that I'd done

And I don't wanna live that way

Reading into every word you say

You said that you could let it go

And I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to know

But you didn't have to cut me off

Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing 

And I don't even need your love

But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough

No you didn't have to stoop so low

Have your friends collect your records and then change your number

I guess that I don't need that though

Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Somebody, I used to know

(Somebody) Now you're just somebody that I used to know

Somebody, I used to know

(Somebody) Now you're just somebody that I used to know

I used to know, that I used to know, I used to know somebody