Is it ok to use “I used to live in London for three years.”? I feel a bit strange to use “I used to...” and “for...”.
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1You could try using a hyphen or comma before 'for'.– user353675Commented Sep 14, 2019 at 15:37
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I would probably say 'I lived' rather than 'I used to live'.– marcellothearcaneCommented Sep 15, 2019 at 21:20
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1 Answer
I think native speakers prefer to say I lived in London for three years
Non native speakers tend to use used to when simple past serves the purpose.
I used to live in London for three years
Both the sentences mean almost the same thing and talk about the completed actions in the past and also past habits.
I here with attach a link to show how used to can be used.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/used-to
answered Sep 14, 2019 at 16:31
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2Saying that they both mean the same allows the OP to use "used to live", which is very redundant and it isn't very common in written English. I would suggest mentioning that the OP should use "lived" more frequently than "used to live".– JustinCommented Sep 14, 2019 at 17:14
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3"I used to live in London for three years" does not sound natural to me. It suggests the speaker would live in London for three years at a time. So 3 years in London, then somewhere else, then another 3 years in London and so on. Similarly, "I used to go to the gym for three hours". Commented Sep 14, 2019 at 18:24
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2I lived in London for three years. After that I lived in Bristol, where I told people 'I used to live in London, but now I live here'. Commented Sep 14, 2019 at 18:33