"I went", "I would go", "I used to go" (2024)

What is the difference between these three sentences? As far as I know, all of them can be used to say that something was being done often and regularly in the past for a period of time. For answering some grammar tests it is essential to know the difference among them.

1) I went to the beach every day during my high school years .

2) I would go to the beach every day during my high school years.

3) I used to go to the beach every day during my high school years.

Thanks.

Since is used with perfect tenses and it means from a certain time up to the present (not up to a specific time in the past). It doesn’t work in any of those examples.

I have/had been to the beach every day since 2000. ​

I went to the beach almost every day between 2000 and 2002. ​

lingobingo said:

Since is used with perfect tenses and it means from a certain time up to the present (not up to a specific time in the past). It doesn’t work in any of those examples.

I have/had been to the beach every day since 2000. ​

I went to the beach almost every day between 2000 and 2002. ​

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Thanks. I replaced that part with "during my high school years". My problem is with differentiating these three from each ocher. I mean "Simple Past", "Would + Verb", and "Used to + Verb". Thanks.

1) I went to the beach every day during my high school years.
Simple statement of fact in the past tense (I went to the beach), modified by an ‘adverbial of time’ without which no implication of habit exists.

2) I would go to the beach every day during my high school years.
Use of the modal verb would to denote a habitual action in the past. Even without the adverbial, the construction implies that the action was habitual (although the same construction can have other meanings, e.g. in a conditional).

3) I used to go to the beach every day during my high school years.
Use of the past-tense construction “used to” to denote a habitual action in the past. Even without the adverbial, the construction implies that the action was habitual.

Thanks lingobingo. Do you mean mean: (1) is being used for expressing just a fact, and (2) and (3) are being used for expressing a habitual action and there is no deference between them, other than just the sentence construction?

Thanks.

lingobingo said:

I mean exactly what I said. That’s how YOU have used those verbs.

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Thanks. I appreciate it.