The pattern
"I used to" plus a verb describes something that was true back then and has stopped being true. "I used to live in Osaka" means you don't anymore. "I used to smoke" means you quit. The pattern carries a before-and-after story in four words, which is why people use it constantly when they talk about their lives.
The question and negative drop the "d": "Did you use to...?", "I didn't use to...". It sounds identical in speech, "yoos-tuh", so the spelling only matters on paper. And keep it apart from "I'm used to", which means "comfortable with": "I used to hate mornings" is history, "I'm used to mornings" is habit.
Say it out loud
Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.
"There used to be" describes places that have changed.
Question and negative: "use to", no "d". Same sound either way.
Check yourself
Practice · 3 min
Talk about how things have changed. Prompt on the left, one natural sentence on the right.
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Say it today
Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.