Week 3 · The weekend: “I used to”
"Used to" is quick and quiet, but it flips the meaning. "I run" is now. "I used to run" is over. Miss those two words and you get the whole story backwards.
Read the sentences below, then practice the whole lesson with audio.
- 1Hey, Kai. How was your weekend?
- 2It was great. I finally made it to the park by the river.
- 3Oh, nice. What did you do there?
- 4I went for a long run. Do you ever run?
- 5Sure. I used to run marathons.
- 6Wow, that's amazing. I'm going again on Sunday morning.
- 7Do you want to come with me?
- 8Maybe. How far are you thinking?
- 9Not too far. Maybe ten miles.
- 10Ten miles? Were you listening to me?
- 11You said you run marathons.
- 12I said I used to. That was twenty years ago.
- 13These days, I get out of breath on the stairs.
- 14Sorry, I missed that part. We could just walk instead.
- 15Now you're talking. And we're stopping for coffee.
FAQ
- How does this dictation practice work?
- Play a sentence, type exactly what you hear, then press check — Dictation Trainer shows word-level feedback: which words you misheard, misspelled, confused for a homophone, or missed.
- Do I need an account, and is it free?
- No account needed to start: you can practice 3 full lessons free — audio, typing, and word-by-word feedback — without signing up. Create a free account to keep going: 100 Echoes (about 10 more lessons), plus saved progress, streaks, and a mistakes notebook.
- What level is this lesson?
- This lesson is graded B1 on the CEFR scale and has 15 sentences. Dictation Trainer lessons start at A1 and climb as the library grows.