I'm used to or I used to?
Use To
When I was younger, I used to try to fit in, but now I’m much more comfortable with just being myself. -Andrea Riserborough
'Use to' is a verb we use to talk about something that happened in the past that doesn’t happen anymore. We always use it in the past tense.
So, if we follow the basic structure:
subject + verb + infinitive + complement
We can say,
“They used to be friends.”
“I used to live in Spain.”
Remember! In negative and interrogative sentences we use 'use to' and not 'used to':
“He didn’t use to work this much before."
"Where did you use to live in Italy?"
Be Used To
“I am used to being around kids. I had a younger sister that I looked after from time to time.” -David Beckham
Be used to is an adjective we use to say that we are very familiar with something. We say that we are used to something when we are accustomed to it, when it is normal or usual for us.
We need to use a verb before the adjective ‘used to’. We can use the verb to be or the verb to get.
We can use a noun after ‘used to’:
subject + verb to be + used to + noun
"I am not used to the snow."
"He’s used to spicy food."
"They’re not used to his bad temper."
We can also use a gerund after ‘used to’:
subject + verb to be + used to + gerund
"I am not used to swimming in cold water."
"He’s used to eating spicy food."
"They’re not used to seeing him angry."
Get used to
We use get when we want to talk about a process of change. So when we say that we got used to something, it means that it wasn’t normal for us in the past, but with time it became normal:
subject + verb to get + used to + gerund/noun
"He used to live in Malaga. At first, he wasn’t used to the hot weather. But after a few months, he got used to the heat and he actually started to enjoy it."
"She used to live in Montreal. She wasn’t used to the snow at first, and even after so many years, she never got used to living in such cold weather."
27. September 2018
