Hello. This is Jack from ToFluency.com and in this English lesson I’m going to introduce
2 phrases. Those are ‘be used to something and ‘get used to something’.
Now, I used both of these phrases in one of my videos on YouTube and on Facebook. So,
what I’m going to do is show you how I used these phrases, give an explanation, show you
further examples and then I have a question for you. So first, here is the video.
But, I've started to play football soccer again and my legs are really tired after the game
Sunday because I didn’t play over the summer. I decided to take the summer off. So, it means
that my body isn’t used to playing football and I just need to get used to it. After a
few games, I’ll feel fine.
In the video, I said, “…it means that my body isn’t used to playing football and
I just need to get used to it, after a few games I’ll feel fine.” So, the first example,
‘my body isn’t used to playing football’, this is what that means. To be used to something,
to be used to doing something means to be accustomed to something for it to be normal.
So, my body isn’t accustomed to playing football. It needs to adapt. It’s not normal
at the moment. But, the second part of this sentence, ‘I just need to get used to it’,
this is talking about the process of becoming accustomed to something. Going from it not being
normal to it being normal. So, at the moment, I’m playing soccer every week or football
every week and I’m getting used to playing. My body is getting used to playing football
on a weekly basis. And then, hopefully after a few games, my body will be used to playing.
I’m going to show you some more examples now so that you can understand the difference
between these 2 phrases. “So, it was strange at first, but now I’m
used to living in the U.S.” I’m originally from the U.K and when I moved to America,
things were strange. But now, after 5 years, I’m used to living here. It’s normal for
me now.
“However, my friend who just moved here is getting used to living in the U.S.” So,
he is going through the process of becoming accustomed to living here and “people aren’t
used to his accent”. So, his accent is quite strange for Americans and people aren’t
accustomed to his accent. And then, one last example, “I used to live in Spain.” Now,
this one is a little bit different. But, I wanted to show you this to highlight the difference.
Now, I used to live in Spain is talking about a past fact. I lived in Spain in the past.
I used to live in Spain. The difference here is you can see the way we use the pronouns
at the start of the sentence. Look at the first example again. We’re using
‘I am’. I am used to living. So, it’s ‘I am’ plus ‘used to’ plus ‘living’
the gerund. In the last example, “I used to live”, we’re using ‘I’ plus ‘used’
and then ‘to live’, ‘to go’ the infinitive. It’s a little bit confusing but after time
you’re going to get used to it.
Now, my question in this video is this, “What is the number one thing people have to get
used to when moving to your country?” What is the number one thing people have to get
used to when moving to your country? So, leave your answers below this video. Thanks for
watching and I’ll see you next time.