ACT Hard English Question

coolweather
Wed, 09 Sep 2015 04:26:20 +0000

@farfarawaykontes

https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-modal-would.htm

According to the above link, “would” is used to talk about habitual behavior in the past. So I think “would use” could be correct. But the sentence in your question belongs to a longer passage. The context of that passage may tell more about which answer is the best one. Also the author mentioned “it was a language”, not the habit. So I think “had used” is more correct.