Hi, I'm Anne Marie with Speak Confident English and welcome to your Confident
English Wednesday lesson. This week we're looking at used to versus be used to and
get used to. These look very similar but do they mean the same thing in English?
Can you use them in the same way? That is what we're going to focus on in today's
lesson. These are all extremely common ways of expressing ourselves in English.
Native speakers use them every day and I want you to know exactly what each of
these means and how you can use it correctly so that you can communicate
effectively and naturally in English. So our first question is do these mean the
same thing and the short answer is no. They do not. Used to is completely
different from be and get used to. Those two are actually quite similar, so let's
start with used to first. We'll look at what it means and how you can use it
correctly. And then we'll look at be and get used to. Let's start with a couple of
example sentences to see if you can identify how we use used to - what does it
mean in the sentence - and what is the grammatical pattern that we use. For
example I used to drink coffee but now I only drink green tea. I used to drink
coffee but now I only drink green tea. Or she used to live in Los Angeles,
California but now she lives in Chicago. She used to live in Los Angeles
but now she lives in Chicago. So what do you think? How are we using these two
words, what do they mean? Hopefully you've identified that we use 'used to' to talk
about things in the past actions, situations, or states of being (we'll talk
about that in a moment) that are no longer true, they're no longer happening.
They were in the past. Now a state of being is like being happy or
being stressed, being sad. It's not an action. For example, he used to be really
happy in his job or he used to love his job but now he's always stressed. So now
you have three example sentences: I used to drink coffee, she used to live in LA,
and he used to love his job. Can you identify the correct grammatical pattern
that we use with used to? Thankfully this grammatical structure in English is very
easy. It is simply used to plus the most basic form of the verb. I used to go, I
used to drink, she used to eat, we used to watch movies every Friday but now we are
too tired or now we do something different. It is very very simple: used to
plus the most basic form of the verb. So now let's move on to be and get used to.
As I said these are very similar but they have a completely different meaning
than 'used to.' To be used to something is to say that you are accustomed to it,
it's normal for you, it's not unusual or strange or weird. It's part of your
normal everyday life. For example, I'm used to getting up every morning at 5:00
a.m. I'm used to getting up every morning at 5:00 a.m. That simply means
that it's totally normal for me. It is my normal daily routine. Sleeping late would
feel very strange. I would feel that I lost part of my day.
Or another example: she's used to going to yoga every morning. She's used to
going to yoga every morning. It's just, again, part of her normal everyday life.
It feels comfortable and normal to her. Now get used to is very similar but it's
more about the process of becoming accustomed to something. It takes time.
Something was really odd or strange, unusual, now not so much but it's not
totally normal either. It's somewhere in that process of becoming normal for you.
For example, imagine that you live in a country where you don't use a lot of
spices in your food and suddenly you travel to India or Thailand for a month
and there's curries and peppers in everything. You might need to get used to
all of the spice and the food. It might take some time. It might be unusual and
different (and hopefully very very exciting because that's an explosion of
amazing flavors) but it might take some time. Or the same is true when you travel
to another time zone. If you live in Australia and you travel to the United
States, it's a huge difference between time zones and you'll probably suffer
from jet lag. When you travel that far it takes time getting used to the time
differences the time zones. Now a couple of rules about be and get used to: we can
use these in the past, present, or future tenses. For example, when I was younger I
was used to waking up every morning at 5:00 a.m. but now it's a little bit too
early for me. Or, for example, maybe you're moving to a brand-new country soon and
you're feeling a little nervous about cultural differences,
language differences, so your friend might say, "Oh don't worry, you'll get used
to it quickly." You'll get used to it quickly. Now with these examples I'm used
to waking up every morning at 5:00 a.m. I'm used to going to the gym in the
mornings. I'm getting used to the spicy food or I'm getting used to the time
zone differences - do you notice any patterns or grammatical structures in those
sentences? Hopefully you've identified that after those key words - be or get
used to - they are followed by a gerund (gerunds are those nouns with -ing) I'm used
to waking up, I'm used to going, I'm used to eating, I'm used to drinking... or a noun
or pronoun. I'm getting used to spicy food, I am used to the time differences.
In all of those examples, it's followed by an -ing (or gerund) or a noun or pronoun.
And now it's your turn. I want to hear from you. I want you to practice using
these expressions so they start to feel completely normal to you, I want you to
get used to them. so take some time to practice and the best place to do that
is in the comment section just below this video. It's the best place to
interact and get feedback from me and to interact with the Confident English
Community. Read what others have to say, even ask questions, learn from each other.
So here's what I want you to do: first, tell me about something you used to do
or something that used to be true again you're focused on the past something
that is no longer happening or true. And then tell me about something that you
are used to or that you got used to over time. What was it? And then use an example
in the past, present, or future. If you have additional questions, again the best
place to do that is just to ask in the comments section. I do read them
all and respond. And with that thank you so much for joining me. I love having you
here every Wednesday and I'll see you next week for your Confident English
Wednesday lesson.