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