Hi again and welcome back to Seattle Learning Academy's American English pronunciation podcast.

My name is Mandy and this is our 167th episode. Stay listening all the way to the end of this episode to get the coupon code for $5 off any product from pronuncian.com through the end of 2012.

A few days ago, I made a post on the English Assembly Facebook page, passing along a trick to help with the usage of

used to versus wood when talking about the habitual past. You see, sometimes used to and

wood are interchangeable, but not always. This trick, which I found on Cambridge's Grammar and Beyond website,

notes that if I can add the word usually to the sentence, I can use either used to or would

to express the habitual past. The habitual past includes things that occurred regularly in the past, but don't occur regularly

anymore. Let's look at an example. I can say either, when I was a kid, my mother used to read

to me every night, or when I was a kid, my mother would read to me every night. Or, when I was a kid, my mother would read to me every night.

However, I can't substitute would in the sentence.

My mother used to be a librarian.

If I said, my mother would be a librarian, it sounds like I'm saying the first part of a conditional.

I expect an if statement to follow.

My mother would be a librarian if she didn't need a special degree for it.

That sentence has an entirely different meaning from the original, my mother used to be a librarian.

Thanks again Cambridge Grammar and Beyond for pointing out that little tip.

I thought it was pretty interesting.

But let's get on to the pronunciation part of this podcast.

If you've been listening very closely, you may have

noticed that I've been using two different pronunciations of used to. When I've been saying

the phrase in isolation, I've been pronouncing it much more clearly, using what we call

the citation form.

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