Hi everyone! Thank you for tuning in to Time for English.

Today, I'm going to talk about how to use the phrase "used to".

If something used to happen, it happened regularly or all the time in the past, but does not happen now. If you used to do something, you did it for a period of time in the past, but you don't do it anymore.

For example, when you say "Katie used to copy her friend's homework", Katie was cheating on her homework, not once, but all the time. It's not happening now because she is no longer in school and has no homework to do.

I was smoking a lot in the past, at least a pack and a half a day. But I quit some time ago, and I'm not a smoker anymore. In other words, I used to smoke, but not anymore. Or, I don't smoke, but I used to.

Now, would you like to practice together? Please repeat after me:

I don't smoke, but I used to.