Here's the difference: 1. The "would" construction can only refer to repeated habits and actions in the past, not to states. So, for example, you can say either "When I was a child I used to play with my friends" or "When I was a child I would play with my friends". You can also say "When I was a child I used to live in the countryside", but you can't use "would" in this case, because it is not a habit or action. 2. The "would" construction is more literary, formal, 'educated' and old-fashioned. It is not commonly used in everyday conversation. It appears in all the grammar books, but - to be honest - I don't think it's a very useful construction for most students. You can live perfectly well without ever using it.

I am no grammar expert but as far as I can see these are interchangeable. However the first sentence I would change to "I used to play with my friends when I was a kid" not because anything about your sentence is wrong I just personally think my version is a tiny bit more natural sounding. The second sentence I wouldn't change. Hope this helps.

Hello Esther, "Would" is a modal auxiliary and it can be used in 3-4 different situations to convey proper meaning. One of such uses of would is to talk about a past habit. Your sentence conveys the same thing. So here "would" can be used as a replacement of "used to". I will give you a couple of more examples: 1. When i was living in city i used to walk everywhere. When i was living in city i would walk everywhere. In the above sentences it means that when i was living in the city it was my habit to walk around instead of taking any bus or other means of commutation. So "used to" can be replaced with "would". Except for this there are other uses of would too. There you can't replace it with used to. Hope this helps.

We can use the word "would" to describe a past habit and we don't do it anymore. Example: When I was young I used to play cricket. ----> Here, I am not playing cricket now. When I was young I would play cricket. ----->Here, I am not playing cricket now. But you should follow the rule below when you use "would" instead of "used to" You can't drop the part "When I was young ". You need to say both clauses. Otherwise the meaning of the sentence is different.