Mutiple Choice Option [used to smoke/had used to smoke]

[sb70012]

He ……. smoke a lot.

a)had used to
b)use to
c)used to (Answer Key)
d)was used to

Hi,

Can option "a" (had used to) be correct too? If not then in what circumstance it can be correct?

Source: School Exam
Thank you

 

[bhaisahab]

He ……. smoke a lot.

a)had used to
b)use to
c)used to (Answer Key)
d)was used to

Hi,

Can option "a" (had used to) be correct too? If not then in what circumstance it can be correct?

Source: School Exam
Thank you

No, it's not correct. I can't think of any context in which it would be correct.

 

[Pangus]

A search of the British National Corpus brings up...

'He felt suddenly a brief return of the closeness they had used to enjoy when the children were small and she still felt important to them and minded less his involvement with his work.'

So it looks like you can use 'had used to' as the past perfect of 'used to'. So in theory when you are telling a story at one point in the past and then you want to jump further back in time; however, as a native speaker, my instinct tells me the 'had' is redundant and doesn't flow so well. I'm struggling to come up with an example for smoking that doesn't sound wrong. I certainly wouldn't expect to see this usage in an exam, though you'd probably have grounds to argue for the mark.

 

[Tdol]

Is there that much of a case when there's no context? There's one blindingly obvious answer and anyone who knows that had used to appears occasionally, though isn't really a standard form, would go for c). It's a bit of a weak case for me.

 

[MikeNewYork]

A search of the British National Corpus brings up...

'He felt suddenly a brief return of the closeness they had used to enjoy when the children were small and she still felt important to them and minded less his involvement with his work.'

So it looks like you can use 'had used to' as the past perfect of 'used to'. So in theory when you are telling a story at one point in the past and then you want to jump further back in time; however, as a native speaker, my instinct tells me the 'had' is redundant and doesn't flow so well. I'm struggling to come up with an example for smoking that doesn't sound wrong. I certainly wouldn't expect to see this usage in an exam, though you'd probably have grounds to argue for the mark.

It is obvious that "used to" refers to time before the time of speaking. So what would be the purpose of the past perfect tense?

 

[probus]

Charles Dickens might have written "had used to" in some contexts.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Charles Dickens might have written "had used to" in some contexts.

I would ask him the same question.