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  • 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 sort of 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.

Hi, I'm Anne Marie with Speak Confident English and welcome to your Confident

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