This worksheet helps students practise the structure used to to describe past habits and how life has changed over time. The activity includes a personalised writing task and a sentence-matching exercise to reinforce form and meaning.
Activity Overview
- Level:Intermediate
- Target language: used to / didn’t use to
- Time: 20–30 minutes
- Group size: Individual, pairs, or small groups
What you need
- One copy of the worksheet per student (download here)
How to use the activity
- Ask students to write down three inventions that changed the world. For each one, they should describe what life was like before and how it changed after the invention.
- Use one student’s idea to present and elicit the used to structure. For example:
Before the Internet, people wrote letters – now we send emails. → People used to write letters. - Ask students to rewrite their own before/after examples using used to or didn’t use to.
- Give out the sentence halves (cut up beforehand). Students work in pairs to match each sentence beginning with the correct ending.
Example sentences
- People used to count with abacuses – but now we have calculators and computers.
- England used to send criminals to Australia – but now English people go there on holiday.
- European children used to go to work when they were very young – but now they usually don’t start working until they are 16 or 18.
- People used to travel on horses – but now we have cars and motorbikes.
- People used to keep food fresh by putting salt on it – but now we have refrigerators.
- People used to tell each other stories for entertainment – but now they watch TV and movies.
- Women didn’t use to wear trousers – but now many women wear jeans.
- People used to tell the time with the sun – but now we use watches and clocks.
This activity supports learners in building fluency, encouraging creativity, discussion, and awareness of how language reflects social and technological change.
Related links
- Used to guide – Learn how to form and use “used to”.
- Used to lesson plan – A PPP lesson suitable for intermediate level learners.
