used to, would

[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?

[ian2]

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.

[Teia]

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?

Hi Lenka

"We were lucky to find a house in our price range. The previous owners had taken a wonderful care of the house and had chosen [ you can use only "chosen" ] nice neutral colours ..."- I would use past perfect tense to show that the action [in the second sentence] is previous to the one in the first sentence.

Regards