USED TO vs BE USED TO Difference | Learn the English Vocabulary Grammar and Meaning

Hi, everyone. I’m Esther.

In this video, I’m going to talk about the two similar and sometimes confusing English expressions

‘used to’ and ‘be used to’.

These expressions can be confusing,

but this video will help you understand the difference and when to use them.

So keep watching.

Let’s start with ‘used to’.

Its form is ‘used to’ + the infinitive.

It's used as a verb.

'used to' expresses that an activity was a past habit.

It was a regular occurrence at an earlier stage of life

but not anymore.

Let’s look at some examples.

The first sentence says, ‘I used to drink green tea.’

However, because it says ‘used to’ it means not anymore.

It used to be a regular thing in the past

but I don't drink green tea anymore.

The next sentence says, ‘Karen used to play with dolls.’

Again, Karen played with dolls a lot maybe in the past

but she doesn't play with dolls anymore

and that's why we used ‘used to’.

Now, I’ll move on to ‘be used to’.

Its form is ‘be’ or ‘get used to’.

It means that you are accustomed to something.

You don't find it unusual. It's familiar to you.

Let’s look at some examples.

The first sentence says,

‘I’m getting used to working at night.’

Remember, the form can be ‘be used to’ or ‘get used to’.

In this example, we're using ‘get used to’.

‘I’m getting used to working at night.’

I’m becoming familiar with working at night.

Maybe it's because I’ve been working at night for a long time.

The next sentence says,

‘She's used to the heat in the summer.’

Here, we use the ‘be’ verb ‘she is’.

‘She's used to the heat in the summer.’

She's accustomed to it.

Maybe it's because she lived in a hot place when she was young.

Now, let's move on to a checkup.

In this conversation, there are two sentences.

In one of the sentences, we use ‘used to’.

In the other sentence, we need to use ‘be’ or ‘get used to’.

Take a moment to think about where we use these expressions.

‘A’ says, ‘I _blank_ have a better work schedule.’

‘A’ is trying to express that in the past he had a better work schedule

but that's not true anymore.

So we need to use ‘used to’.

‘I used to have a better work schedule.’

‘B’ says, ‘Don't worry. You'll _blank_ this new schedule soon.’

‘B’ is trying to tell ‘A’

after some time

you'll be accustomed to your new schedule.

So ‘B’ can say,

‘Don't worry. You'll be used to this new schedule soon,’

or ‘Don't worry. you'll get used to this new schedule soon.’

So if we look at this conversation altogether,

‘A’ says,

‘I used to have a better work schedule.’

‘B’ says,

‘Don't worry. You'll get used to this new schedule soon.’

Now you know the difference between ‘used to’ and ‘be used to’.

Be sure to use them correctly.

Remember, it's always important to practice everything you learn in my videos.

Thank you guys so much for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.