Is it better to say "I would always lose when I played chess with my father" or "I used to always lose when I played chess with my father" ? Please justify your choice! Thank you in advance.
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2Possible duplicate of "Would" & " Used to" (but see also jpyvr's answer here). I'll add that while jpyvr's teacher would only license "When I played chess with my father, I would always lose" and not the ordering here, they were being over-prescriptive: either way is acceptable. // 'Would' is more formal than 'used to'. //// "I always used to lose ..." (informal) or "I used always to lose" is more idiomatic.– Edwin AshworthCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 10:45
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@EdwinAshworth Neither of the cited references has a canonical (or "valid" on ELU) answer. The jury is therefore still out on that.– KrisCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 14:44
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For one, "'Used to' can be used to talk about past states as well as past repeated actions and habits, but 'would' is only used to talk about past habits. 'Would' is not used to talk about past states." and more here: bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode69/…– KrisCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 14:46
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1 Answer
The former means that my father always beat me at chess, and now he may or may not beat me at chess. The latter means that my father always beat me at chess, but now I beat him at chess.
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Good comment. Not an answer. Please post it as a comment if you have the privilege.– KrisCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 14:39
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