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

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

Hello beto97,

There are many different situations in which we use the '-ing' form. A good place to start is on our '-ing' forms grammar page.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello yahys,

In this case, 'sleeping' is a gerund. This is because 'to' is a preposition, and prepositions are always followed by noun phrases. A gerund is the nominal ('noun') form of a verb.

The same is true in a phrase like 'He's looking forward to seeing you'.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello bridge23d,

It's important to distinguish between two different uses of the words used to that are easily confused. These are explained above, but briefly again they are:

1. used to + verb (to speak about a past habitual action that is no longer true)

2. to be used to + noun phrase OR + verb in the -ing form (to speak about something you are accustomed to)

So if you say 'I'm used to playing football in the morning' (2), it's not really talking about a habit. It means it's something normal for you. I can see how that could imply that it's talking about a habitual action (because we are probably accustomed to most of the things we do habitually), but that's a meaning that we add and is not what the grammar expresses.

Many students of mine say 'I'm used to studying English every day' (an action I'm accustomed to) when what they really mean is 'Normally I study English every day' (a habitual action).

Remember that used to + verb always speaks about something that is not true right now. 'I used to study English every day' speaks about the past and it means I don't study English every day in the present.

Hope this helps.

All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team

Hi gerisdao,

Verbs expressing emotions and feelings are generally not used with continuous aspect, so the correct form would be 'I have always admired...'.

Similar verbs include like, love, hate, desire, approve etc.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Ahmed Imam,

The sentence is grammatical in terms of structure but does not make sense. The brother's stomach troubles come from eating, not from being used to eating. Being used to something means that it is not novel, not that it is done frequently or to excess.

Peter
The LearnEnglish Team

Hello GiulianaAndy,

I'm afraid we don't help with answers to questions from other sites or sources. If we did, we'd soon end up doing users' homework for them! You'll need to ask the author of the questions, or check in a key if there is one.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

I used to. I'm getting used to. I'm used to. The meaning of the sentences has too much to do with the correct answers

Hello Aziz-12345,

The verb 'dress' doesn't seem right to me here; I'd recommend 'wear' instead. After the verb 'see', we use a bare infinitive form ('wear') to speak about seeing an action in general or an -ing form ('wearing') to speak about seeing an action in process. In this case, I'd suggest and -ing form, I think. It depends a little on what exactly the sentence means.

Hope this helps.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Maahir,

The correct spelling here is 'now', so the second sentecne is correct.

Generally, we don't provide answers to questions like this one. We try to offer explanations of how language works rather than just right or wrong answers as otherwise we would end up doing our users' homework for them!

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Nayoung,

The sentence about your father uses the present perfect, which implies that your father is still moving from country from time to time. 'be used to' can only be used to talk about past actions that we no longer do, so your book is right -- it's not correct to use it here.

If your father were retired now and the original sentence had the past simple ('worked in several countries'), then it would be possible to use 'used to' there. But 'I've been to' would not be correct. This is a statement about your life experience and so it wouldn't be correct to use 'used to' as long as you are alive.

Best wishes,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi jennie1996,

It should be living, because it follows isn't used to. :)

It would be live if the sentence was Linda used to live ... or Linda didn't use to live ..., but this has a different meaning.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Yokohama,

In a question, 'did you use to' is actually the correct form, not 'did you used to', though the word 'use' is very often misspelled here.

I'm not completely sure I've answered your question. If not, could you please rephrase it? It wasn't completely clear to me what you were asking.

Sorry.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello ryanmicah,

No, that's not correct. In the phrase 'get used to' the word 'to' is not part of an infinitive but is rather a preposition. It is followed by an object, which means here a noun or a gerund, The correct form is:

I am getting used to eating/playing/living etc.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello DanilaKorobkov,

Yes, there is some difference. In 1, 'be used to' means that you are already familiar with the new job. In 2, 'get used to' means that you are in the process of becoming familiar with the new job.

In other words, in 1, you are already used to it; perhaps it doesn't really feel new to you any more, since it feels normal to you now. In 2, you aren't used to it yet, though you are beginning to be more used to it -- it doesn't feel normal to you yet, though maybe not completely strange either.

Hope this helps.

All the best,

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Memmedeva Nezrin,

The form use to appears in negative and interrogative sentences when talking about past habits, as described in the first section on the page:

I used to work in a restaurant. [affirmative]

I didn't use to work in a restaurant. [negative]

Did you use to work in a restaurant? [interrogative]

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi hardikpatild,

Yes! Here are some examples.

• My new job is difficult but I'm getting used to it.
• How do you find living by yourself? Are you getting used to it?
• She's getting used to working from home. She's been doing it for a few weeks now.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi soniariverofdez,

Yes, be used to can be followed by the gerund! But it's not the only possible structure. It can also be followed by:

• a noun phrase (e.g. I'm not used to my new job.)
• a pronoun (e.g. I'm not used to it.)

Does that make sense? There are some more examples of these structures in the activities above.

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi susanavali,

In the first sentence you are describing an repeated/typical/normal action in the past which is no longer true. Thus 'used to' is needed. In this context you need a negative as the word 'much' is generally used in questions and negatives; also, the contrast with getting positive feedback now makes it plain that it was different in the past. Thus 'didn't use to' is the answer.

In the second example, we are talking about trying to accept something which was difficult (long hours). The speaker tried to accept the long hours as normal but failed. Thus 'couldn't get used to' is the correct form.

In the third example the meaning is similar to the first. We have a regular past action (playing the guitar) which is no longer true. Hence, 'used to play' is needed.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Stellaaa,

In terms of meaning, these are very similar. I think become familiar tends to be used with a sense of recognition - the way something looks or is physically organised - while used to suggests something more like a routine of some sort becoming normal.

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team