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This is JPPGG© bunpo principle #87. To say that you used to do something fairly
regularly in the past, use the following construction:
Once you get the hang of these examples, plug and play your favorite verbs into the
construction and improve your Japanese, Keep plugging and playing until your friends
tell you they can’t stand how much you practice your Japanese and tell you to stop, or
they practice until they are all asleep, whichever comes first. You want to get better at
Japanese, don’t you? Well don’t bicker…do quicker! Here are some nice examples with
an occasional ghetto phrase sprinkled in here or there to spice up the flavorful fun, so that
you can have a good time studying Japanese.
Watakushi ga motto wakai koro, jitensha de yoku gakko ni itta mono desu.
{As for I, in the more young time, by bike often school went thing is.}11
2. He used to cheat, but the teacher busted him, and now he is a good boy.
Kare wa mae yoku kanningu2 shita mono desu keredomo sensei ni barete
shimatte ima orikosan desu.
1
Given here in its’ literal translation; its easy to see why not to translate literally as can be seen from the
corruption madness of its form and sound.
2
From the English adjective cunning.
3
Non-polite plain form of the copula desu = da)
4
See JPPGG© Ghetto Grammar #88: ‘Verbing’ –verb (base TE) + iru or the Japanese Gerund.