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Question to Americans (I'm interested in US version of English):

Imagine your first job was at McDonalds. You’re telling about it to a friend. Would you rather say:

1a) I worked at McDonalds as a teenager.

1b) I used to work at McDonalds as a teenager.

1c) both

Imagine you took piano lessons when you were a teenager and were good at it. But you no longer doing it.

2a) I played piano as a teenager.

2b) I used to play piano as a teenager.

2c) both

thank you so much! Sergey.

  • Does this answer your question? Is 'used to' describing something changed? – livresque Mar 07 '24 at 02:15
  • @livresque not really. I'd better update the question. –  Mar 07 '24 at 02:28
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    Are you aware that "Do you play piano?" *really* means "Do you KNOW HOW TO play THE piano?" – tchrist Mar 07 '24 at 02:33
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    I don't think there's any difference that I can articulate. I could imagine both being used with equal likelihood. And I don't think that's only for US English. – Andy Bonner Mar 07 '24 at 15:55
  • The temporal 'as a teenager' licenses both variants. But a single-span durative like 'for several months' proscribes the 'used to' construction: 1c) *I used to work at McDonalds for several months. However, 1d) I used to work at McDonalds for several months each summer. is back to acceptable, as repeated intervals are now in play. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 07 '24 at 16:24

2 Answers2

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I have a preference for one form or the other, depending on the context.

For case 1 about working at McDonalds:

1a) I worked at McDonalds as a teenager.

I would say this when the emphasis is on the fact that it was McDonald's and not somewhere else. For example:

Don't worry, I know all about making french fries. I worked at McDonalds as a teenager, you know.

In this case, the focus is on the fact that you worked there, and that fact matters for the point you're trying to make.

On the other hand, the "used to" construction makes the point more neutrally, or weakly. As @ryang says, the "used to" clearly implies that you're referring to a past condition which is no longer the case. Because of this, you can use it to introduce distance, or mildly downplay something. An example of this:

Yeah, I did use to work at McDonalds, but only as a teenager.

(Note here that the past tense is indicated on the verb "did", rather than "use". "I did used to work there" would sound alarmingly wrong.)

As a counterexample, suppose your friend is challenging you.

Friend:

You've never had to work a crummy job in your life!

You:

I worked at McDonalds as a teenager.

The plain form rather than the used-to form is a much more direct way to refute the challenge.

Regarding your comment about working at Google:

If you want to simply and neutrally tell someone you worked at Google, you would just say: "I used to work at Google".

If on the other hand you're trying to assert that you're a good engineer or something like that, you would use the plain form "I worked at Google", much like the making fries example. This form sounds a lot pushier to me.

You can however soften this plain form by adding a time statement to it. These all sound totally neutral to me:

  • "I worked at Google for a while"
  • "I worked at Google from 2017 to 2021"
  • "I worked at Google a long time ago"

The reason these things sound softer is that the time statement indicates the exact same thing that the used-to form does - it puts the condition in the past and underlines that it's not the case anymore.

(Finally, just in the spirit of helping out, there are a couple small mistakes in your question:

"You're telling about it to a friend" is understandable but not something a native speaker would say. I might say:

  • "You're talking about it to a friend"
  • "You're telling a friend about it"

Likewise with "You no longer doing it". I might say:

  • "You're no longer doing it"
  • "You no longer do it"
dlfurse
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1a) I worked at McDonalds as a teenager.
2a) I played piano as a teenager.

Your (a) suggestions are fine; to more emphatically suggest that you no longer play the piano:

  • I used to—as a teenager—play the piano;
  • I used to—when I was a teenager—play the piano.

1b) I used to work at McDonalds as a teenager.
2b) I used to play piano as a teenager.

On the other hand, given that the phrase ‘used to’ strongly suggests change, your (b) suggestions don't sound quite right, since the fact that you played the piano as a teenager hasn't been altered, and since you aren't trying to indicate that you now play the piano as an adult (as opposed to as a teenager).

ryang
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  • Thx a lot! What if you worked at Google from 2014 till 2019. In a casual conversation, would you rather say "I used to work at Google" or "I worked at Google"? –  Mar 07 '24 at 03:30
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    @SergejFomin I think that in casual conversation the two phrasings are interchangeable: idiomatically, both, particularly the former, communicate that that employment is history. – ryang Mar 07 '24 at 03:39