# Every Friday night I would go to the cinema



## dafaher

Good afternoon community, greetings from Buenos Aires. Sorry to bother you, I love English and my only education was during high school, everything else I learned was self-taught, so it's pretty poor.
Generally I use "I used to...", but many times I've heard expressions that refer to past habits, in which the auxiliary "would" is used. For example,

"Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends".

My question is: does this use of the word "would" have any particular denomination? Could it be said that it is also a tense? I also noticed that whenever I heard these expressions it was always with the positive form of "would". I never heard "wouldn't", I guess because it wouldn't make any sense haha.

Thank you very much for any comments you can make in this regard. Best regards and good week to all!


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## Agró

It's used with past habits, as you say. So it's similar _to used to + inf_.
You can use _used to + inf._ with all kinds of verbs, stative and non-stative (_I used to have/I used to be/I used to work_) but you cannot use _would + inf._ with stative verbs (_*I would be unhappy when I was a child_).


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## Cholo234

dafaher said:


> My question is: does this use of the word "would" have any particular denomination? Could it be said that it is also a tense? I also noticed that whenever I heard these expressions it was always with the positive form of "would". I never heard "wouldn't", I guess because it wouldn't make any sense haha.


Good afternoon!

"Would can refer to typical habitual actions and events in the past and often occurs in narratives:

_We stayed in an inn which had been built by a film company when they had made a film in the area.  Every morning, the waiters *would* come down the long verandah, followed by two small but very active monkeys, and leave us a try of coffee, rolls and tropical fruit.  The fruit looked divine, but I never tasted any of it.  The monkeys *would* sit there staring, and I couldn't resist their eyes begging for food.  The waiters *would* return, collect the tray and the monkeys would *follow* them to the next room and do it all over again._

(The Cambridge Grammar of English, 390a)

_When she was old, she would sit in the corner talking to herself for hours.
Sometimes he would bring me little presents without saying why.
On Sundays, when I was a child we would all get up early and go fishing."_

(Practical English Usage, 633, 7)

(_Would _is used as an auxiliary above_. _ A good dictionary can tell you about other uses of _would, _such as the use of _would_ in a conditional sentence.)



dafaher said:


> I never heard "wouldn't", I guess because it wouldn't make any sense haha.


Learn English of (the) British Council says, "We don't normally use the negative or question form of _would_ for past habits."


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## Raposu

*Would *can be used to express a habitual or ongoing action in the past.


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## gengo

dafaher said:


> "Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends".
> 
> My question is: does this use of the word "would" have any particular denomination? Could it be said that it is also a tense?



I agree with the above replies, but to answer your specific question, the dictionary just says that it is the past tense of "will."  Here are some notes about this very common meaning of "would."

*2. **talking about the past*
You can use *would* to talk about something that happened regularly in the past but no longer happens.

_We would normally spend the winter in Miami.
She would often hear him singing._
*Used to* has a similar meaning.

_She used to visit them every Sunday.
In the afternoons, I used to read._
However, *used to* can also be used to talk about states and situations that existed in the past but no longer exist. You cannot use 'would' like this. You can say, for example, 'She *used to* work there'. Don't say 'She would work there'

_I used to be quite overweight._


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## dafaher

Good morning community, sorry for the delay, I never received the notification email.

@Agró, thank you very much for your answer and clarification on the use of would+inf. with stative verbs.

@Cholo234 thank you very much, I really appreciate that you took the time to transcribe that paragraph, it contains several examples that helped me to better understand in which cases "would" is applied.

@Raposu, thank you very much for your answer too!

@gengo, thank you so much for transcribing all that. I think the use of "would" sounds less formal than "used to". As I explained, my only real training was during high school, where I learned British English. But I must admit that the English I feel most comfortable with is American, it's strange because I feel that I speak with a hybrid English.

Could someone suggest educational bibliography and/or apps that allow me to practice American English? Thanks again to all of you for taking the time to reply to me. Best regards and have a great weekend!


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## duvija

Wouldn't you say '... I would go to the movies ...' (or is it only in Am Eng?)


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## gengo

duvija said:


> Wouldn't you say '... I would go to the movies ...' (or is it only in Am Eng?)



In AmEn we rarely use "cinema" (and use "movies" as you say), but in BrEn they often use it.  I'm not sure about other varieties of English.


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## SrRemo

gengo said:


> In AmEn we rarely use "cinema" (and use "movies" as you say), but in BrEn they often use it.  I'm not sure about other varieties of English.


Regarding that _would_ ("Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends."): I recommend to my students of English that they throw it away and write the simpler "Every Friday night I went to the cinema with my friends." To me, it's just wordiness--a waste of ink and breath.


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## gengo

SrRemo said:


> Regarding that _would_ ("Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends."): I recommend to my students of English that they throw it away and write the simpler "Every Friday night I went to the cinema with my friends." To me, it's just wordiness--a waste of ink and breath.



I have to disagree with you there.

1. Every Friday night I went to the cinema with my friends.
2. Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends.

I think these convey significantly different ideas.  #1 states a simple fact about a certain period of time in which this happened every Friday.  #2, on the other hand, is less precise, and refers more to a general tendency of going on Fridays.  Once in a while he may not have gone on a Friday, but in general he did.

Also, I'm not sure why you quoted my post in yours, since what you quoted only has to do with using "cinema" versus "movies."


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## SrRemo

Sorry. I am not handy with this system and may not have quoted on purpose, or may not know how to direct a reply to the entry that I mean to answer. Re the _would go_ vs. _went_ question, all I can say is that I've spent much of my adult life striving to write clear, precise English, and to teach others to do the same; and to me there's no difference of meaning between the two options, when the purpose is simply past-tense narration of someone's behavior and no use of the conditional is intended.


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## gengo

SrRemo said:


> ...when the purpose is simply past-tense narration of someone's behavior and no use of the conditional is intended.



This usage is firmly established in English, and has been used by great writers throughout modern history.  It's fine if you personally prefer to avoid it, but for the purposes of a language forum where people are trying to learn English as it is used (correctly) by native speakers, it's not helpful to tell them not to use it.

Furthermore, this construction conveys significant information that differs from that of the simple past tense.  Compare the following.

When I was a boy I would ask my parents about sex.
When I was a boy I asked my parents about sex.

The second sentence strongly implies that the question was asked just one time, while the first makes it clear that this was a repeated action, and conveys the idea that the boy probably had follow-up questions as time went by.

You are doing your students a disservice if you are recommending they avoid this usage.


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## duvija




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## SrRemo

gengo said:


> Furthermore, this construction conveys significant information that differs from that of the simple past tense.  Compare the following.
> 
> When I was a boy I would ask my parents about sex.
> When I was a boy I asked my parents about sex.
> 
> The second sentence strongly implies that the question was asked just one time, while the first makes it clear that this was a repeated action, and conveys the idea that the boy probably had follow-up questions as time went by.



I agree, in the instance you've just given. But the difference goes away if the sentence begins with something like "Every Friday night"; that opening establishes the action's regularity, and the "would" construction adds nothing.






gengo said:


> You are doing your students a disservice if you are recommending they avoid this usage.


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## duvija

Good English requires it. Colloquial, not so much. But it should be taught so they will understand when they read ! Isn't that a reason?


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## SrRemo

duvija said:


> Good English requires it. Colloquial, not so much. But it should be taught so they will understand when they read ! Isn't that a reason?


I think, rather, that it's widespread in colloquial English (the "would" construction to narrate habitual action in the past) but that a careful writer will not use it in a sentence that, like the original poster's example, begins by establishing the action's regularity in a different way.

If teaching English primarily to _learners_ of English, I would teach it, for the reason you mention--that the students will encounter it and must know how to interpret it. But in English, I'm mainly a teacher of literature; I teach language _per se_ only to learners of Spanish.


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## Poppy410

dafaher said:


> Good afternoon community, greetings from Buenos Aires. Sorry to bother you, I love English and my only education was during high school, everything else I learned was self-taught, so it's pretty poor.
> Generally I use "I used to...", but many times I've heard expressions that refer to past habits, in which the auxiliary "would" is used. For example,
> 
> "Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends".
> 
> My question is: does this use of the word "would" have any particular denomination? Could it be said that it is also a tense? I also noticed that whenever I heard these expressions it was always with the positive form of "would". I never heard "wouldn't", I guess because it wouldn't make any sense haha.
> 
> Thank you very much for any comments you can make in this regard. Best regards and good week to all!



In English I would use went.

Every Friday night I went to the cinema with my friends.

Every Friday night I went to the cinema with my friends, and yes we would always go to the same cinema.

"Would" only used to emphasise some additional information if added, or save repetition of went.


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## Bevj

I partly agree with SrRemo.
The use of _would_ to describe repeated past actions should certainly be learned and understood.  However in practice and in normal speech and writing, it is very rarely actually used and at least in BrE it sound stilted and something taken out of an old novel.


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## gengo

Bevj said:


> I partly agree with SrRemo.
> The use of _would_ to describe repeated past actions should certainly be learned and understood.  However in practice and in normal speech and writing, it is very rarely actually used and at least in BrE it sound*s* stilted and something taken out of an old novel.



SrRemo is American, and I can attest that this use of "would" to refer to habitual action in the past is very much alive and well in ordinary AmEn speech.  Just yesterday my friend was reminiscing about being a young boy, and was saying that when we were young we would play outside all day long, etc. (as opposed to the youth of today who seem to stay indoors).  Furthermore, SrRemo himself says "it's widespread in colloquial English."  I find it very surprising that you say it's rarely used in BrEn.

I agree with SrRemo that including a marker such as "every Friday" greatly reduces the need for the "would" in the sentence of this thread, but I don't think the sentence rises to the level of redundancy.


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## duvija

Are you sure it's never used in the negative???


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## Richard Dick

*would* _v aux_(repeated action in past)soler⇒ _vi_We would take walks by the river.Solíamos pasear por el río.

*Los viernes solía ir al cine.


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## gengo

duvija said:


> Are you sure it's never used in the negative???



Maybe not never, but very rarely, if ever.


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## Ballenero

dafaher said:


> "Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends".


When I read this for the first time I thought it was the same that:

Every friday night I’d like to go to the cinema with my friends.

Am I wrong?


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## gengo

Ballenero said:


> When I read this for the first time I thought it was the same that *as*:
> 
> Every *F*riday night I’d like to go to the cinema with my friends.
> 
> Am I wrong?



Yes, because that "would" is not a conditional, but a marker of habitual action in the past.  It just means "iba" or "solía ir."  Furthermore, nothing in the sentence (Every Friday night I would go to the cinema with my friends) conveys the idea of "like."


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## Ballenero

Entonces, 
¿cómo se dice en inglés?

Todos los viernes yo iría al cine con mis amigos (porque lo paso muy bien con ellos).


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## gengo

Ballenero said:


> Entonces,
> ¿cómo se dice en inglés?
> 
> Todos los viernes yo iría al cine con mis amigos (porque lo paso muy bien con ellos).



Ah, I see what you mean now.  The translation would be the same, and only the context would tell us which meaning was intended.  That conditional form would probably be accompanied by other information that would be the clue.

Ex.
I get along so well with my friends.  In fact, I would go to the movies with them every Friday, and I wouldn't get tired of them.


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## SrRemo

gengo said:


> SrRemo is American, and I can attest that this use of "would" to refer to habitual action in the past is very much alive and well in ordinary AmEn speech.  Just yesterday my friend was reminiscing about being a young boy, and was saying that when we were young we would play outside all day long, etc. (as opposed to the youth of today who seem to stay indoors).  Furthermore, SrRemo himself says "it's widespread in colloquial English."  I find it very surprising that you say it's rarely used in BrEn.
> 
> I agree with SrRemo that including a marker such as "every Friday" greatly reduces the need for the "would" in the sentence of this thread, but I don't think the sentence rises to the level of redundancy.


This horse may have breathed its last some weeks ago, but I've looked here again because of a notice from WordReference (re the "poppy" post above). I just want to wave the flag for some (cautious) adherence to the notion of correctness. Also alive and well in ordinary AmEn speech (_well_ in the sense of widespread, if not healthy) is the use of _to be like_ as a synonym for _to ask_ and _to say_: _I was like, "What are you doing?," and he was like, "I'm studying."_ I'd tell learners of English about that usage just to prepare them for inevitable encounters with it; I'd also urge them not adopt it.


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## Bakauata

gengo said:


> Maybe not never, but very rarely, if ever.


Would this example be a usage in the negative?

As a teenager I wouldn't have dreamt of wearing my sister's clothes.


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## gengo

Bakauata said:


> Would this example be a usage in the negative?
> 
> As a teenager I wouldn't have dreamt of wearing my sister's clothes.



No, that is the conditional mood, not indicating habitual past action.
De adolescente no se me habría ocurrido llevar la ropa de mi hermana.


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