Overview
A habit is a reoccurring action or situation that takes place multiple yet an indeterminant number of times, often across some designated, extensive time period. It may be a routine, hobby, or tendency, or perhaps an unintentional happenstance.
Habits do not apply to verbs that only happened once. Nor do we use expressions of habit for a specified number of instances, or a specific duration across all instances.
Past Habits
The topic of Past Habits is sometimes featured as its own lesson in English Language Teaching. In particular, such lessons tend to focus on the unique pseudo-modal used to — which is only ever used for Past Habits — often comparing it to would. But there are other ways we can express Past Habits:
- Past Simple (or, occasionally, Past Continuous)
- especially with modal adverbs
- used to
- tended to
- would / could
- was/were [adjective] to
- had to
- kept ____ing
With used to, it is understood that the habit is limited to the past. With the other methods, however, it may be ambiguous whether the habit continues into the present, even though the focus is on its past occurrences.
Present & Future Habits
Present Habits
There are a few ways we can express present habits:
- Present Simple (or, occasionally, Present Continuous)
- especially with modal adverbs
- tend(s) to
- will / can / might
- am/is/are [adjective] to
- have/has to
- keep(s) ____ing
Unlike with the past, the most common way to express present habits is merely with the Present Simple tense.
Future Habits
Since we generally use will or other modals to indicate the future, it’s often hard to indicate habits in the Future Simple or Future Continuous without the aid of modal adverbs. Otherwise, we might use will tend to, will keep ____ing, or be going to keep ____ing.
Methods
Simple Tenses
Although the Present Simple tense may be used for one-off actions, it is much more often used for habits or for ongoing states. For instance, “Caroline collects stamps,” probably means that Caroline does so often, not that she collects stamps on one specific occasion (although we would need more context to be sure).
For the Past Simple tense and the Future Simple tense, however, the precedence is reversed: these two tenses are far more often used to express an instance rather than a habit. For instance, if you heard “Mark went to the movies,” without any further context, you’d be more likely to assume the sentence referred to one specific time that Mark went to the movies.
To clearly indicate that the action or state is a habit, it’s best practice to add either a modal adverb or a modal auxiliary to the verb phrase.
Modal Adverbs
Verb phrases can be combined with Adverbs of Frequency to communicate a habit. Adverbs of Frequency include but are not limited to:
‘always’ • ‘constantly’ • ‘usually’ • ‘often’ • ‘generally’ • ‘typically’ • ‘frequently’ • ‘regularly’ • ‘periodically’ • ‘sometimes’ • ‘occasionally’ • ‘rarely’ • ‘hardly ever’ • ‘never’
To best convey habits, these Adverbs of Frequency should come before the main verb (“I often visit my grandmother.”), but after the leading auxiliary (“She is always talking about her childhood.”), if there is one.
Another option is to use adverbial phrases (whether they are adverbs, prepositional phrases, or even Adverbial Clauses) that indicate frequency with more specificity, such as ‘every morning’, ‘each Halloween’, ‘every other month’, ‘on Thursdays’, ‘whenever the mood strikes’, etc. These adverbials typically work best just after the verb or at the end of their sentences.
Used To
The term used to is a pseudo-modal and is one of the strongest ways to express a past habit or state. It is uniquely only for past; there is no form or variation of used to that works for the present or any other time frame.
As used to is never present, it does not have an -s form. It always ends with a ‘d’ unless accompanied by the auxiliary ‘did’. Used to cannot host negators, so we use ‘didn’t use to’ for negatives. The following verb should only ever be in its base form. There are no perfect or continuous variations of ‘used to’.
- affirmative: ‘used to’
- eg: “Eunice used to crochet.”
- negative: ‘didn’t use to’ or ‘never used to’
- NOT: ‘
didn’t used to‘ - eg: “Eunice didn’t use to crochet.”
- eg: “Eunice never used to crochet.”
- NOT: ‘
- interrogative: ‘did … use to’
- NOT: ‘
did … used to‘ - eg: “Did Eunice use to crochet?”
- NOT: ‘
Used to indicates not only a past habit, but specifically that that habit does not continue into the present and beyond. If you are told “Bernice used to be a ballerina,” you can be sure that Bernice is no longer a ballerina. This exclusivity is another feature that separates used to from other methods of expressing habits.
Tend To
The term tend to is a pseudo-modal that expresses inclinations, and is therefore not as firm as used to in establishing regular habits. However, tend to is more flexible than used to because it can apply to the past, present, or future.
Like most verbs, tend to can take on an -s ending for 3rd-person present or an -ed ending for past. The following verb should only ever be in its base form.
| PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE | |
|---|---|---|---|
| affirmative | eg: “Tyrone tended to snore.” | eg: “Tyrone tends to snore.” | eg: “Tyrone will tend to snore.” |
| negative | eg: “Tyrone didn’t tend to snore.” or “Tyrone tended not to snore.” |
eg: “Tyrone doesn’t tend to snore.” or “Tyrone tends not to snore.” |
eg: “Tyrone won’t tend to snore.” or “Tyrone will tend not to snore.” |
| interrogative | eg: “Did Tyrone tend to snore?” | eg: “Does Tyrone tend to snore?” | eg: “Will Tyrone tend to snore?” |
Like standard auxiliary verbs, tend to has the option to host negators, as in “tend not to”, which indicates a negative tendency (We can assume that Tyrone never or hardly ever snores). Compare that to placing the negator beforehand, as with ‘doesn’t tend to’, which instead indicates a lack of tendency one way or the other (Tyrone might never snore; or he might snore sometimes, but not enough to consider it a habit).
Modal Verbs of Habit
A handful of core modal verbs can express habits: can, could, might, will, and especially would. Each has distinct uses.
FOR THE PAST:
- We use would for habits, as in “Wallace would often go for a run after work.” If no adverbs of frequency are included, then would is assumed to indicate a consistent action.
- We instead use could for less consistent actions, as in “The young couple could talk all through the night.” We also use could for ongoing states in the past, as in “My little sister could be so annoying!”
| can | could | might | will | would |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
present |
past |
present |
present |
past |
|
states only |
states or actions |
actions only |
actions or states |
actions only |
|
low persistence |
low persistence |
low persistence |
high persistence |
high persistence |
FOR THE PRESENT:
- We use will to indicate a high level of persistence or consistency for both actions and states, as in “Every time we meet, Joan will complain about the weather,” or the saying “Boys will be boys.”
- For less consistent actions, we use might. In the example, “On Saturdays, the twins might go to a football game,” we know that the twins often did this on Saturdays, but not on every Saturday.
- For less consistent states, we use can, as in “My younger sister can still be annoying sometimes.”
Notice from the examples above that we can include an Adverb of Frequency along with a modal of habit to specify just how consistent/persistent the action is.
Modal auxiliaries come at the start of the verb string, and the verb that follows should be in its base form. For modals of habit, the following verb is usually the main verb, although sometimes it’s the auxiliary BE before a continuous main verb. For example, “Poppy will be preparing dinner before she remembers her other plans.”
Be [adjective] To
- be given to
- be inclined to
- be liable to
- be prone to
- be wont to
A few phrases of be [adjective] to can be used to communicate habits in any time frame. Be of course should take the form appropriate for subject-verb agreement and for tense. The verb that follows should be in the infinitive form. For example, “Layla was prone to trip over her own feet,” and “Fido sprinted around the house after supper, as he is wont to do.”
Verb Patterns
A few Verb Patterns can express habits:
- Verbs of Inclination such as continue, like, love, prefer are followed by Full Infinitives. For example, “Charlie continues to attend church every week,” or “Fido loves to play fetch.”
- The verb keep is followed by an Active Participle. In the example, “The lifeguard keeps telling the kids to slow down,” we understand that this is a repeated action.
The precise meaning of some of these Verb Patterns may seem ambiguous without context. As such, Verb Patterns are perhaps a less reliable way to communicate habits. However, their choice of verbs gives us more options for expressing the manner or attitude with which the habit was carried out.
Advanced Concepts
Be/Get Used To
A similar form to used to is be used to or get used to, but these expressions have a different meaning: they convey familiarity. They are synonymous with be/get acquainted with. Also, these don’t precede main verbs*, but instead are the main verbs of their clauses. Here are some examples:
- “I‘m not used to the sound of city traffic at night, yet.”
- “The bride is still getting used to her new surname.”
- “He is used to smelling coffee when he wakes up.”
- “It took a while, but I finally got used to the new accounting system.”
* Note that the third example above shows ‘smelling’ after ‘is used to’ — ‘smell’ is not a main verb here, but ‘smelling’ is a Gerund, serving the role of a noun in this sentence.
Forms of BE at the beginning indicate a static state, while get is dynamic (indicating a transition from unfamiliar to familiar).
There may be a slight overlap in the applications of used to and of be/get used to, as we tend to be familiar with things that are attached to our habits, and we may develop habit as we get acquainted with something. But it’s important to remember that although these forms look almost identical, their purposes and their grammar details are very different.
Continuous Tenses
Continuous tenses often express ongoing states, but they can also express repeated actions — in other words, habits. The biggest difference between simple tenses and continuous tenses when it comes to expressing habits is that continuous tenses probably convey the sense of a strong emotion, like excitement or annoyance.
For instance, we might use the simple “Freddy complained all the time,” as a description of Freddy’s behavior. On the other hand, if we use the continuous “Freddy was complaining all the time,” this communicates the speaker’s frustration with Freddy.
Continuous tenses also express habits over a limited time frame, whereas simple tenses can have more open-ended durations.
Teaching Tips
Modal Auxiliaries
By the time students learn about Habits, they’re likely already familiar with modal verbs. Notably, would, could, and can are modal verbs commonly used for habits. Learners probably know how to use each of these in different ways (like for ability); it just happens to be a different flavor from what they already know.
Used to is regarded as a ‘pseudo-modal‘, which means it acts as a modal auxiliary, but it doesn’t quite have all of the same properties as a standard modal verb. Still, if your students are comfortable with modals, you may want to present used to as a similar term; it comes before the main verb, and the verb that follows should not take on any participle forms. Also, used to is defective and cannot take the forms ‘uses to‘ or ‘using to‘.
Used To vs. Be/Get Used To
If you teach used to and be/get used to side-by-side, the first thing of course is to reveal the difference in meaning. But a second point that Insights recommends is to show that used to serves as an auxiliary verb while be/get used to is the main verb.
Remind learners that HAVE is an auxiliary verb, but have can also be a main verb referring to possession. While they look and sound identical, they mean different things and serve very different purposes. The same can be said of used to and be/get used to.
Have To
The pseudo-modal have, followed by a Full Infinitive, can be used to convey habits when partnered with an adverb of frequency, as in “I have to take out the recycling each week.” While most other methods are more likely to be either natural occurrences or habits that the subject wants to do, have to is usually applied to actions that the subject is compelled to do.
Further Reading
Encyclopedia Pages
- Unreal Mood — other moods beside the habitual mood
- Modal Verbs — more details and uses for would, could, etc.
- Present Simple and Past Simple — other ways to express repeated actions or states
Intermediate Topics
CEFR Levels B1-B2: Pre-Intermediate to Upper Intermediate courses
