Learn English – the difference between “was going every day” and “would go every day”

conditional-constructionsmodal-verbspast-continuousverbs

What is the difference between these two phrases?

"He was going for a morning walk every day"

vs

"He would go for a morning walk every day"

Best Answer

He was going for a morning walk every day.

He would go for a morning walk every day.

Both the sentences are grammatical, but there's a difference between their meanings.

The first sentence is in the past continuous. You can use this tense to refer to something that you did again and again in the past. The sentence means that he used to go for a morning walk again and again every day. The sentence is grammatical though it's odd or unusual. You usually go once, not several times, for a morning walk every day.

You can use would instead of "used to" to refer to something that you did regularly or habitually in the past. The sentence is quite clear. It was his habit or routine to go for a morning walk every day; of course, it conveys the sense of going for a walk once, not several times, every day.

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