Quote:
Originally Posted by Lenka  We were lucky to find a house in our price range. The previous owners took/had taken/USED TO TAKE/WOULD TAKE wonderful care of the house and chose nice neutral colours we can live with.
Why cannot I use use "used to take" or "would take" in the sentence? |
"Used to take" and "Would take" are used to express an action that took place repeatedly in the past. You may say that the previous owner must have taken good care repeatedly, but that is not the focus of the sentence. The sentence does not highlight the repeated aspect of the action. In fact, there is a very clear indication that the past tense should be used, because the verb after "and" is chose, which is the past tense and TAKE and CHOSE are at the same level.