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Why are we not allowed to use the "used to" in the following sentences?

  • I used to work hard last month.
  • I used to live in London three years ago.

And could you please recommend a grammar book for advanced learners.

marcellothearcane
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Tamara
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  • Have you seen our [ell.se] site? – marcellothearcane Sep 15 '20 at 14:19
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    I see no problem with I used to live in London three years ago. I used to work hard last month is odd only because used to implies longer ago than last month. – Colin Fine Sep 15 '20 at 14:20
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    The first one is wrong because work hard refers to a long-term habit, and used to presupposes that it has changed. I used to work hard is perfectly grammatical. But adding last month limits the duration of the habit to one month, including the change. This is a contradiction. You could say I used to work hard, but I stopped last month, which puts the events in temporal perspective. As Colin points out, I used to live in London 3 years ago is OK, though I lived in London 3 years ago is just as good and has no meaning difference. – John Lawler Sep 15 '20 at 16:13
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    @ColinFine I expect it's after "I used to live in London" or "I lived in London 3 years ago" – marcellothearcane Sep 15 '20 at 20:58
  • @marcellothearcane: You expect that what is after those? I've said that I see no problem with I used to live in London three years ago. To put it another way, I used to live in London three years ago seems fine to me. – Colin Fine Sep 15 '20 at 21:14
  • @ColinFine looks like homework to me, so the teacher/textbook. – marcellothearcane Sep 16 '20 at 04:58

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