'used to' + infinitive and 'be' or 'get used to' + '-ing'

Hello Sara hesham,

We say get used to something when there is a change over time from something being new or strange to it becoming familiar. Your first sentence is like this: at first sleeping with the lights on was strange but it then became normal.

We say be used to something when something is normal for us. It does not tell us anything about change: it could be something that was never strange for us, or it could be something that became normal over time. This is the meaning of your second sentence.

We use used to do something when we did something regularly or normally in the past but do not do it anymore. This is the meaning of your third sentence.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Viktoria,

There is no time I can think of when an infinitive is used after 'get used to'. The 'to' in 'get used to' is not part of a verb -- it is a preposition. After a preposition, we can put a noun (e.g. 'get used to the weather') or a verb in the '-ing' form (e.g. 'get used to speaking French'). We use this form to speak about how we feel about something.

Note that this is different from 'used to' + infinitive, which is used to speak about past habitual actions that are no longer true.

Does that make sense?

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Westnur,

Welcome! We hope you enjoy your English practice here :)

If you mean a habitual action in the past (i.e. you don't do it any more), it should be I used to play football in the morning. But if you still play football, you can't use used to. It should be I play football in the morning (present simple). You can add an adverb like usually or regularly to emphasise the habitual meaning.

Does that make sense?

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello mehransam05,

I'm afraid it's not so simple! 'way' is one of a group of nouns that can be followed by an infinitive, so 'the only way to gain knowledge' is the correct form in this case. If you follow the link to the dictionary entry, you can see a heading for 'way to do something', which shows you how the word can be used in this way.

'key', in contrast, can be followed by the preposition 'to' (which can be followed by an -ing form), so 'the only key to gaining knowledge' is the correct form in this case. It's more difficult to find this in the dictionary entry I linked to, but if you got down to the 'key² adjective' entry, you can see it in one of the example sentences.

As you can see, words can be used in many different ways, and for the most part you just have to learn these different ways. When you read or listen, it's a good idea to make note of how you see or hear words being used -- but don't make note of only individual words, make note of whole phrases, and then revise these phrases and try to use them in your speaking and writing.

When you're writing, a dictionary is also an invaluable tool, as I hope the links above have shown you.

Good luck!

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello mehransam05,

1 is correct and 2 is not. 'to defeat' would be correct after a verb like 'want' or 'plan', but not after the noun 'key'.

'to' is a tricky word, because it has so many uses and meanings. Here it is a preposition. When a verb form follows a preposition, it always goes in the '-ing' form, which is why 'defeating' is correct here.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Lyvo,

When we say we are used to something we mean that it is no longer strange or new for us. In other words, there is an implication that at some point in the past it was strange or new.

Sentence C is the correct answer because it contains this sense of change. It is normal for me now implies that it wasn't normal at some point but has become so.

Sentence A has the opposite meaning. It suggests that before a point in the past (which is not given) the activity was normal, but then became strange. For example, you might continue like this:

It had been normal for me to teach my students through social media, but when we changed to the new platform it was very hard for me to adapt.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Helo salvio90,

Your friend is correct :)

You have two time references here:

1. when you went to Italy
2. two days after arriving

The two verb constructions you are choosing between are be used to and get used to. One describes a state (be used to) and the other a process or a change (get used to).

The process would take place at some point before its result. In other words, when you talk about the process, you are looking back from a point later on (two days after arriving). To talk about events in the past when we are looking back from another point in the past we use a past perfect form, so hadn't got used to is the correct form.

The state is a description of a point in time when that state is either true or not. To describe this, we use a past simple form, so wasn't used to is correct.

I hope that helps to clarify it for you.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Kumar

The second is correct. 'to' is a preposition in this case.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi sherif aboul khair,

We use used to + -ing to talk about something which was strange or new and becomes normal after some time. It's not necessarily a habit but it could be.

I'm used to living in the city now. [a state]

After a week or so, I was used to wearing a mask whenever I went outside. [a habit]

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Ahmed Imam

I would recommend changing this sentence because it's a little confusing. The main thing is that 'used to' is for speaking about actions that we carried out regularly in our normal lives but that we no longer do now. Holidays are not part of our regular life, and so it's confusing to use 'used to' to speak about them.

Even if you're speaking about a holiday you went on many times in the past, it would be confusing to say 'used to'. Instead, for example, you could say 'Whenever I went on holiday, I'd go to the beach to swim every day'. And if you're speaking about one specific time on holiday, you could say the same thing, or just use the past simple: 'When I was on holiday, I went to the beach to swim every day'.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello wycam10

The idea here is that I never became comfortable with the long hours -- in other words, the sentence focuses on the change from being uncomfortable to becoming comfortable, which is why it uses the verb 'get' and not 'be'. 'couldn't be used to' doesn't work here because it doesn't focus on the change in the way that 'get' does.

Does that make sense?

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Jambaangola

I'm very sorry for the inconvenience. Are you still not able to access the course? You should have received an email and also seen a message after you paid telling you to click on 'My Coursework' at the top of the page.

Please also check the email address you registered with, as our team has contacted you there to solve this problem.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team