Used to, get used to, be used to and would explained with an exercise

Concord

3 years ago

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used to / didn’t use to + infinitive

I used to sleep for eight hours every night, but now I only sleep for six.
I hardly recognized Jim. He didn’t use to have a beard.
When I lived in France as a child, we used to have croissants for breakfast. We would buy them every morning from the local baker.
Use:
We use used to / didn’t use to + infinitive to talk about past habits or repeated actions or situations / states which have changed.
used to doesn’t exist in the present tense. For present habits, use usually + the present simple, e.g. I usually walk to work. NOT ~~I use to walk to work.~~

Would

We can also use would (instead of used to) to refer to repeated actions in the past with action verbs (e.g. run, listen, study, cook,). However, we can only use used to, not would, for non-action verbs (e.g. be, need, know, like, etc.). Brad didn’t use to be so thin. NOT ~~Brad wouldn’t be so thin.~~
With would, you must use a past time expression, or it must be already clear that you are talking about the past.
We can use the past simple, often with an adverb of frequency, in the same way as used to and would to talk about repeated past actions, e.g. I often got up / used to get up / would get up early when I lived in Africa, to watch the sun rise.

be used to / get used to + gerund

1 I’m used to sleeping with the curtains open. I’ve never slept with them closed.

Carlos has just moved to London. He isn’t used to driving on the left.

2 A I can’t get used to working at night. I feel tired all the time.

B Don’t worry, you’ll soon get used to it.

be used to / get used to + gerund

Use be used to + gerund to talk about things you are accustomed to doing, or a new situation which is now familiar or less strange.
Use get used to + gerund to talk about a new situation which is becoming familiar or less strange.

So what’s the difference?

The difference between be used to and get used to is exactly the same as the difference between be and get + adjective, e.g. It’s dark and It’s getting dark.

Download “Used To, Get Used To, Be Used To And Would Explanation” in pdf.

Download “Used To, Get Used To, Be Used To Exercise” in pdf.

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used to / didn’t use to + infinitive

I used to sleep for eight hours every night, but now I only sleep for six.

I hardly recognized Jim. He didn’t use to have a beard.

When I lived in France as a child, we used to have croissants for breakfast. We would buy them every morning from the local baker.

We use used to / didn’t use to + infinitive to talk about past habits or repeated actions or situations / states which have changed.

used to doesn’t exist in the present tense. For present habits, use usually + the present simple, e.g. I usually walk to work. NOT I use to walk to work.

Would

With would, you must use a past time expression, or it must be already clear that you are talking about the past.

We can use the past simple, often with an adverb of frequency, in the same way as used to and would to talk about repeated past actions, e.g. I often got up / used to get up / would get up early when I lived in Africa, to watch the sun rise.