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Langue anglaise · Ancient Civilizations

Past habits & modal-past substitutes — used to / had to / was able to

used to, had to and was able to: three ways English narrates a way of life now gone

  • Langues étrangères important
  • Lettres et philosophie important

6 minutes

Le contenu académique est en arabe, comme au BAC et comme dans l’application.

Ce que le programme attend de toi

  • used to + base verb (past habits/states, no longer true)
  • had to / was able to (past obligation/ability substitutes for must/can)
  • past simple of 'to be' inside these narrations

La méthode

  1. Contrast a one-off past action (Simple Past) with a repeated past habit (used to) before drilling

Les erreurs fréquentes

  • Using 'used to' for a single past action instead of a habit
  • had to / was able to confused with mustn't/couldn't (wrong polarity)

Extrait du cours

Alexandria used to have one of the greatest libraries in the ancient world, a building that once held hundreds of thousands of scrolls.

Le vocabulaire

  • used to (كان ... يعتاد)
  • was able to (كان قادرا على)
  • had to (كان مضطرا إلى)

Ce qui n’est pas au programme

  • Simple Past for single completed actions (previous concept)

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