# EN: Usually + le passé



## Chouquette

Bonjour,

Puis-je dire: I usually got up at 7 o'clock?
Je me levais généralement à 7 heures. (Action terminée)

Est-ce possible en anglais d'utiliser 'usually' dans une phrase au prétérit?

Merci de votre aide,
Chouquette.


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## Loob

Yes, you can.

Again, I'm not sure what your underlying concern is.  Is it to do with the fact that French has more "past tenses" than English?

Loob


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## Chouquette

Thank you Loob,
I'm a beginner and ask for me questions. 
Chouquette.



Loob said:


> Yes, you can.
> 
> Again, I'm not sure what your underlying concern is.  Is it to do with the fact that French has more "past tenses" than English?
> 
> Loob


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## marget

Chouquette said:


> Thank you Loob,
> I'm a beginner and ask for me questions.
> Chouquette.



You could also say "I would usually get up".


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## Thomas1

Chouquette said:


> Bonjour,
> 
> Puis-je dire: I usually got up at 7 o'clock?
> Je me levais généralement à 7 heures. (Action terminée)
> 
> Est-ce possible en anglais d'utiliser 'usually' dans une phrase au prétérit?
> 
> Merci de votre aide,
> Chouquette.


Oui, dans cette phrase-ci on parle de l'habitude dans le passé.
Dans le présent on a
I usually get up at 7 o'clock. (l'habitude qui toujours a lieu)
Dans le passé on change seulement le temps :
I usually got up at 7 o'clock. (l'habitude terminée)

_Usually_ est tout-à-fait correct ici. 

Tom


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## Chouquette

Merci Tom,
Je comprends  mieux, c'est très sympa *
Chouquette.



Thomas1 said:


> Oui, dans cette phrase-ci on parle de l'habitude dans le passé.
> Dans le présent on a
> I usually get up at 7 o'clock. (l'habitude qui toujours a lieu)
> Dans le passé on change seulement le temps :
> I usually got up at 7 o'clock. (l'habitude terminée)
> 
> _Usually_ est tout-à-fait correct ici.
> 
> Tom


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## Areyou Crazy

vous pouvez dire aussi ,,,
*I used to get up at 7 o 'clock
*I see usually used in the present tense much more than in the past but I can't say that it is wrong to use usually in the past


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## Avignonais

I think I usually got up at 7 o'clock is correct, but I personally wouldn't use it. 

The problem is this. 
If you are talking about an old (now defunct) habit, you would be inclined to say: I used to get up at 7. If you want to add the idea of "not every time", the sentence would be: I usually used to get up at 7. No-one says that. It is hard to pronounce.

To finish: I would be likely to use Marget's suggestion.


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## Thomas1

Avignonais said:


> [...] The problem is this.
> If you are talking about an old (now defunct) habit, you would be inclined to say: I used to get up at 7. If you want to add the idea of "not every time", the sentence would be: I usually used to get up at 7. No-one says that. It is hard to pronounce.


Another problem is that acording to some textbooks for ESL learners the sentence "I usually used to get up at 7." is grammatically wrong (which to me is a bit weird a _rule_). Thus, when a learner uses this in a test, for instance, then they may be marked down for it.



Avignonais said:


> [...]
> To finish: I would be likely to use Marget's suggestion.


We should bear in mind, however, that _would_ doesn't work in all contexts when we want to express a habitual action in the past.


Tom


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## Avignonais

True, Tom. Use WOULD with caution. One possible confusion I foresee is this one:

*I would get up at 7* is worse than being ambiguous. It means something else: I recommend you get up at 7.
I would usually get up at 7, is not ambiguous as it stands just because of the adverb.


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## marget

[quote We should bear in mind, however, that would doesn't work in all contexts when we want to express a habitual action in the past.
[/quote]
Could you please give an example? Thanks.


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## Thomas1

_Would_ doesn’t work with stative verbs; this, on the other hand, is not true for _used to_. Thus, I think all copulas fall into this category, for instance.

Tom


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## marget

Thomas1 said:


> _Would_ doesn’t work with stative verbs; this, on the other hand, is not true for _used to_. Thus, I think all copulas fall into this category, for instance.
> 
> Tom



How about this sentence "I have an aunt who would usually be sick right around the time of her birthday".  It's true, by the way, and as far as I know it's gramatically correct.  I think I could use _be_ or _get_ in this context and still be correct.


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## Areyou Crazy

I agree I think it's correct to use the verb 'be' after would.


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## Thomas1

marget said:


> How about this sentence "I have an aunt who would usually be sick right around the time of her birthday". It's true, by the way, and as far as I know it's gramatically correct. I think I could use _be_ or _get_ in this context and still be correct.


Hm.. but this is a bit different function/meaning of _be_ here, I _believe_.
Let me give you some counter examples, would you ever say:
_He would be my buddy._
_Tim would be short._
_Kids would like playing foorball_?
I'm not a native, of course, but to me they are not good examples of _would_ used for past habitual actions. All of them, would work, however, with used to or past simple.
In other words, in your example you gave _be_ implying a temporal condition that repeated and that is fine indeed for _would_, but it's not a stative verb here, if I may call it so. This "routine" of being sick is contingent upon something esle, i.e. the time reference you gave in your sentence. Does your sentence work without this part and other additional info? I don't know, but my guess is that it rather doesn't... I may have misled you a bit in my previous comment saying that copulas are part of the verbs that don't really work with _would_. They don't, but they don't work, and perhaps I should have added that in my previous post, when they express a certain condition, which was not momentary and/or repeated, but was rather a long-termed one and permament (a condition/state).
I hope it's a bit clearer now.

Anyway, this is what the ESL books say, and I am not trying to say you should do it too, but I know that students sometimes use constructions that are completely natural in, say, English outside courses, the real one, and got fewer points because of that.


Tom


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