Would (Past Habits)

Would is a slightly more formal way of expressing repeated past habits that we no longer do. These past actions do not take place anymore.

The sentence construction usually starts with a subject followed by would and then the base form of the verb. Consequently, for the negative we use the same formula but we replace would with would not or the shorter form wouldn’t.

Subject + would/wouldn’t + base form of the verb

Examples:

Every weekend, I would go hiking.

When we were young, our parents would take us to the park every Sunday.

My teacher would give me after-school exercises everyday.

On rainy days, we wouldn’t go out.

When I was a child, my father wouldn’t give me the time of the day.

My next-door neighbor wouldn’t bat an eye whenever he heard noises from my apartment.

Would can also be used with always, often, constantly etc. when talking about repeated past actions.

As a teenager, I would always sneak out of our house at night.

I would constantly correct my colleagues and they didn’t like it.

Back in college, I would often go to concerts.

In English, if an action only happened once, we do not use would + base form of the verb. Furthermore, don’t use it to talk about past states.

Examples:

I moved to Madrid in 2010. –(action that happened only once)
I would move to Madrid in 2010. – incorrect

I used to be a writer. –(past state)
I would be a painter. – incorrect