Used To | Be Used To | Get Used To

851

Hi I'm Arnel from Arnel's Everyday English and today I have a new video for

you. Used to, be used to, get used to.

Grammatically these look very similar but they're used in different ways. It's

important to use them correctly. We're going to look at these step by step and

at the end of the lesson, I'm going to compare all three, so you can clearly see

the difference. Used to. Subject, used to plus the bare infinitive.

What's the bare infinitive? Eat, ate, eaten. Eat is the bare infinitive. Play, played,

played. That verb number one, play, is a bare infinitive. We use a structure to

speak about things you did in the past. Now, in the present, you do not do these

things. I have the past and the present. I used to smoke. This tells you now now I

don't. I used to have really really short hair. Now, I don't. I used to have a lot of

free time. Now, I do not. Used to is very powerful. Everyone knows that what you

did or had in the past is not true now. Of course you can have any subject, not

just I. Surgical gloves used to be very cheap. Now, they are not, because of Corona -

Corona Virus. In the negative, it's the opposite. I didn't use to smoke, now I do.

I didn't used to have really short hair. Now, I do. I didn't used to have a

lot of free time. Now, I have loads of free time. Something's missing,

the D! When we form the negative, the D isn't there. I didn't used to smoke. I

didn't used to have really short hair. I didn't used to have a lot of free time.

We remove the D. But, the pronunciation used to, and use to, is the same. Yeah! Did

you use to smoke? Did you use to have really short hair? Did you use to have

a lot of free time? In questions, again, remove the D. Let's look at, be used to. Subject,

be used to, now, or ing? This might look a little bit confusing, but, you'll get it

in no time. We use the structure to speak about things we are accustomed to. Things

we are comfortable with. Things that are normal for us. But maybe not so normal

for other people. Let's take a look.

Imagine you live in New York and a friend comes to visit you. At night you

sleep like a baby.

Your friend on the other hand......

In the morning, your friend: How on earth do you sleep with all that noise? I

couldn't sleep at all! Well, I'm used to the noise, I don't even hear it. Here you

can see the noise is normal for you, but not your friend. You are accustomed to

the noise. Teenagers are used to studying, they study every day. They are better at

studying than adults. Why? Because they are accustomed to studying, it's normal

for them, they are used to studying.

Okay, here we have more examples. We can see: Be used to plus i n g. I'm used to

waking up early. Noun, I'm used to spicy food. We're used to it, pronoun. I am used

to being the tallest person in the room. Again, another i n g form. Here, I have the

present B forms. I have am, are, of course is, is another form. We can also use was

or were for things that were normal, normal in the past. My family didn't have

a lot of money when I was growing up. I didn't have many toys.

I was. I was used to finding ways to entertain myself. That was normal

for me in the past. In the negative we keep the D with this structure. I

work in a kindergarten, it is so noisy, I am NOT used to the noise.

How are you feeling? Okay, good. We know used to plus bare infinitive is

something that we did or had in the past. I used to be a professional swimmer.

We know, be used to plus i n g, noun, or pronoun, is something that's normal. It's

normal for us. I am used to staying at home because of the quarantine. This is

normal for me now. But, this isn't normal, it's it isn't normal!

This didn't become normal for me likethat! This situation had to become normal,

it has to become normal, I had to get comfortable. How do we

describe this process? How do we get comfortable? We're describing the process.

Get comfortable, get comfortable, get used to something. I started this job two

months ago, I'm still getting used to everything. There is so much for me to

learn. Am I completely comfortable? No. Am I slowly becoming comfortable? Yes.

Am I getting used to everything? Right.

I'm new to teaching online, I think it's very difficult,

I prefer teaching in a classroom. Don't worry, you'll get used to teaching online.

Is A completely comfortable? No. Is A going to get comfortable with practice?

Yes. Is A going to get used to teaching online? Absolutely.

My girlfriend wears this really powerful perfume, I just can't get used to the

smell. Am I completely comfortable? No. Am I slowly becoming comfortable? Well in

this example, no. But this person makes it clear that they cannot get comfortable,

they can't get used to the smell.

If we look at the structure we can see get used to, pronoun. Get used to, i n g form.

Get used to, noun. So, remember at the beginning of the lesson I said: and at

the end of the lesson I'm going to compare all three so you can clearly see

the difference. Ok, we've looked at the three structures. Now, it's time to

compare them. hopefully you can really see the difference!

I used to use crutches. I am used to using crutches. I'm getting used to using

crutches. I used to use crutches. I used them in the

past. Now, I do not need them. I am used to using crutches. Now it's normal for me.

I've been using crutches for about two months. I am getting used to using

crutches, it's still a little bit difficult, I've only been using them for

two days. I need more practice. Okay, you did an excellent job! Hopefully this

video was useful. If you can, give me an example down below. Don't forget to

subscribe to Arnel's Everyday English and I can't wait to see you soon for

another video! Thank you!