Look at these examples to see how used to, get used to and be used to are used.
I used to want to be a lawyer but then I realised how hard they work!
How's Boston? Are you used to the cold weather yet?
No matter how many times I fly, I'll never get used to take-off and landing!
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Used to + infinitive and be/get used to + -ing look similar but they have very different uses.
used to
We use used to + infinitive to talk about a past situation that is no longer true. It tells us that there was a repeated action or state in the past which has now changed.
She used to be a long-distance runner when she was younger.
I didn't use to sleep very well, but then I started doing yoga and it really helps.
Did you use to come here as a child?
be used to and get used to
Be used to means 'be familiar with' or 'be accustomed to'.
She's used to the city now and doesn't get lost any more.
He wasn't used to walking so much and his legs hurt after the hike.
I'm a teacher so I'm used to speaking in public.
We use get used to to talk about the process of becoming familiar with something.
I'm finding this new job hard but I'm sure I'll get used to it soon.
It took my mother years to get used to living in London after moving from Pakistan.
I'm getting used to the noise now. I found it really stressful when I first moved in.
Be used to and get used to are followed by a noun, pronoun or the -ing form of a verb, and can be used about the past, present or future.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
Hello ryanzol,
There are two issues here. The first issue is that it would not be grammatically correct to say 'We *wasn't used to *get much positive feedback' because there are errors in the two words marked with an asterisk. Regarding the first one, with the subject 'we', we don't use 'wasn't' but rather 'weren't'. So if you changed it to 'We weren't used to ...', that would be correct. The other incorrect word is 'get', which should be 'getting' because the word 'to' in 'be used to something' is a preposition, and when prepositions are following by a verb form, the verb form must end in '-ing'.
So the grammatically correct version of your suggested sentence is 'We weren't used to getting much positive feedback about our old product, but the new formula is really successful.' Let's call this corrected version sentence 1.
Let's call the version with 'didn't use to get' sentence 2: 'We didn't use to get much positive feedback about our old product, but the new formula is really successful.'
'be used to something' describes something like an emotional state. Sentence 1 says that we got feedback about the old product from time to time, but mostly it wasn't positive. We routinely got feedback that was neutral or negative -- another way of saying this is 'we weren't used to getting much positive feedback'.
('get used to something' describes the process that leads to the emotional state that 'be used to something' describes. But notice that this is not what sentence 2 says -- it says 'we didn't use to get'.)
'used to' + infinitive describes a past action or state that is no longer true. Sentence 2 says that we routinely got neutral or negative feedback. In this case, this means the same thing as sentence 1. The difference between the two sentences is that the grammar is sentence 1 talks about a state whereas the grammar in sentence 2 talks about an action or state that is no longer true now. In this case, this results in little difference in meaning, but in other cases it could.
I hope this helps you make sense of it.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
thanks for answering...
Hi,
I would like to understand more clearly this issue, so my question is: when we change the tense to negative or interrogative, we have to change the main verb tense or only change "used to & be/get used to"?
I mean, when we change the tense of main verb we should change also "used to & be/get used to", right?
Ex.1: I didn't use to...
Ex.2: I'm use to...
Ex.3: I get use to..
Tks
Hello shimon,
In affirmative sentences we use 'used to':
When we form negative or interrogative sentences with an extra auxiliary verb such as do or did we use 'use to':
When there is already an auxiliary verb we do not change 'used to' to 'use to':
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi,What is the difference between (i was used to) and (i used to) in meaning? Can pronouns and nouns come after used to like get used to and be used to? And is there any example for using pronouns or nouns after used to or be/get used to?
Thank you.
Hi itzSaif123457,
We use [used to + verb] to describe past habits or past typical states which are no longer true. For example:
The negative and interrogative forms are regular: She didn't use to.... / Did she use to...
There is no present or future form of 'used to'.
As I mentioned above, 'used to' is followed by a verb (base form), so pronouns are not possible.
We use [be/get used to + -ing/noun] to describe when a situation becomes normal to us and stops being strange. For example:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi everyvone, i have a question. I think this sentence is wrong "It took my mother years to get used to living in London after moving from Pakistan", " ... after had moved from Pakistan" sounds more accurate, what i missing?
Hello Blizzard93,
The sentence is fine. You can say 'after she moved' or 'after she had moved', but 'after moving' is probably the most natural choice here.
Phrases such as 'after moving' take their time reference from the rest of the sentence. In other words, if the rest of the sentence had a future meaning (it will take...) then this phrase would also have a future meaning. Here you have a past time reference (it took...) so the phase is also located in the past.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
thanks a lot
hello I have a question
In what cases i have to use -ing form of a verb?