Look at that big supermarket : there used to be a cinema here in the good old days… 

Pour exprimer un contraste entre une situation passée et le moment présent,

on utilise l’expression used to  devant le verbe.

 

Construction :

·        Forme interrogative

- How did you use to communicate before the invention of the telephone ?

·        Forme affirmative

- In that time, we used to write long letters.

We used to keep those letters, and we used to read them from time to time… 

·        Forme négative

- You may be right, but people didn’t use to communicate with totally unknown people, whereas now they can.