English Club

I found an excellent web site to practise grammar online.
In this ocasion we have 'Used to' or 'use to' vs 'would', I am teaching my students their use, form and function.

Surfing on internet I found the information they just needed. Here a summary with examples and at the end some dynamic online exercises.

'Used to' or 'use to' vs 'would'

1) If we say something used to happen we are talking about repeated events and actions in the past, usually things that happened a long time ago and are now finished.
To express this we can use either used to or would.
· When I was young I used to play with my dolls. = When I was young I would play with my dolls.
Of course I no longer play with dolls!
· We used to go out a lot in the summer. (Implies that we no longer go out much)

2) If you want to talk about repeated states or habits in the past, you must use used to, you cannot use would:
· My dog used to bark at cats.
· I used to smoke.
· I used to be an administrative assistant.
· I used to live in England.
You should use 'use to' without a d in sentences when it follows 'did' or 'didn't' (don't worry too much about this because lots of people get it wrong).

3) The question form is ‘Did you use to…?'. When asking a closed question you put did/didn't in front of the subject followed by use to, you cannot use would.
· Did you use to go out with my sister?
· Did they use to own the company?
· Didn't we use to go to the same school?
Also when asking questions about states in the past you cannot use would.
· What sort of things did you use to like when you were young?

4) In the negative you cannot use would without a change in meaning.
· I didn't use to play with my dolls.
If I said I wouldn't play with my dolls. It would mean I refused to play with my dolls.
· We didn't use to go out much in the winter months.
If I said we wouldn't go out much. It would mean we refused to go out much.
Note - The general rule is when there is did or didn't in the sentence, we say use to (without d) when there is no did or didn't in the sentence, we say used to (with d).


Exercise 1: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/usedto/exercise1.swf
Exercise 2: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/usedto/exercise2.swf
Exercise 3: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/usedto/exercise3.swf
Exercise 4: http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/usedto/exercise4.swf

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In the digital world there is place where stories are created by students of different schools around the planet.

Thanks to the well-known 1001 Flat Tales Project, students around the world have the oppotunity to be authors of very interesting stories. Their schools register in the WIKI and students are asigned a partner.
The objective of this project is to let students publish their stories and let their partners to check it (peer correction work), they will also write comments and will give some suggestions to improve their partner's work. Year 9 students had the opportunity to be involved in this project.

We started a week ago and we are working on our stories. We are very happy to get in touch with people around the world, read their stories and learn a little bit more about their culture.

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Happy Birthday St. George!

Today, our school is 77 years old and we are ready for the celebration!
Students and teachers got ready for a RALLEY DAY, we prepared games and performances at school.

Students of junior and senior school decorated their classrooms and participated in different games such as puzzles, dressing the knight, dances and others.

This is the first time St. George's College has a ralley day and we enjoyed it so much that it will take part of our school activities every year.

Check some of the pics.

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Classes have just started and a new friend has made his way to our lives.

Russell Ormes comes from England and he is working as a volunteer in our school. He has been visiting a few countries in South America and he will stay with us for a month or so.
He will be working with senior school students and I am sure he will enjoy many of the activities we have at school.

It is a pleasure to have you here Russell, enjoy your stay!

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During the recess time there is a magical place that opens its doors and happily receive all the students of St. George´s College.

All the ones who are passionated about reading stories, knowing unique characters and imagining a new world of entretainment are welcome to share a special moment with Miss Charito, who is more than glad to have students in the library where she reads interesting books, shows them videos and more.

These activities help our students to have better reading skills; to be more interested about books and educational videos; and to grow in them curiosity and creativeness.

Thank you very much Miss Charito for sharing your experience and great ideas with the students.

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Students of Senior School had the experience of participating in debates. The topic to dicuss was very interesteing for students and for teachers too. On the picture you can see students of Eight Milton (Year 8) doing the activity.

The topic was: "IS LEARNING ONLINE A GOOD ALTERNATIVE TO HAVE A GOOD EDUCATION AND TO OBTAIN CERTIFICATES?"

In this task students had to organise in 3 groups. One group will be the affirmative team, the other one will be the negative team and we will also have a jury (3 Students) and the Chairperson (Teacher).
The affirmative and negative team had to give 5 strong reasons to back up their opinions regarding the topic given. This was a very interesting task to work with my students. They developed speaking and thinking skills.

They worked as a team, they organised and enjoyed the activity. I strongly recommend to have this activities with your class. =D

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TODAY, 9th of March, all Senior school had a friendship trip where students and teachers had the opportunity to share moments of joy and fun.

We left school at 8:10am and we departed to our destination "Club Molle". Here students and teachers had the opportunity to relax and share special moments. We had all the facilities we needed. We spent our time in the swimming pool, at the playground or just sitting around having somebody to talk to.

At lunch time, we tasted a delicious and tasty roasted chicken and french fries, and as desserts we had ice-creams.
We spent a few more hours playing around and then it was time to leave, we packed our things and left back to school.

This event takes place every year and it is a day to know each other and interact with new friends and teachers.

I hope we all enjoyed this day and let's wait for more events to come!

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