ESEN
Which one to use?Intermediatestructureinfinitive
Be / get used tovsUsed to
'Be used to doing' = to be accustomed; 'get used to doing' = to become accustomed; 'used to do' = past habit, no longer.
Side-by-side comparison
Be / get used to
structure"Get used to + -ing" describes the process of adapting to something new until it no longer feels strange. It talks about the change that happens over time.
It took a while, but I am now used to waking up early for work.
She is getting used to cooking for herself since moving into her own flat.
Living abroad was hard at first, but you soon get used to the different routines.
Used to
infinitive"Be used to + -ing" describes the final state: you have already adapted, you are already accustomed. It is not the process but the result of having adapted.
I used to walk to school every day when I was a child.
She used to play the violin, but she stopped when she started university.
They used to live in a small town, but they moved to the capital five years ago.
Common mistake
- •"I am used to work late" is wrong: after "be/get used to", the TO is a preposition, not the infinitive TO. Therefore it must be followed by a gerund: "I am used to WORKING late".
- •"Used to work" (without be/get) is a past habit and takes the infinitive.
Trick to remember it
- •The trap is the TO: in "be/get used to", TO is a preposition, not part of an infinitive. Test: "used to IT" works (object pronoun confirms it's a preposition). That's why gerund always follows.
- •Key contrast: "used to GO" (past habit, no longer) ≠ "used to GOING" (accustomed to it, current state).
Quick rule
- •"Used to + infinitive" = past habit.
- •"Be used to + -ing" = accustomed (state).
- •"Get used to + -ing" = to become accustomed (process).
- •The TO in "be/get used to" is a preposition: requires gerund, NOT infinitive.
Did you know?
"Be used to doing" vs "used to do" appears as a test item in nearly every B2/C1 English exam worldwide because the confusion is universal regardless of the student's native language. The Cambridge C1, IELTS, TOEFL, and Trinity all include specific exercises on this distinction. The reason is that the two expressions are a reliable indicator of advanced grammatical mastery: intermediate speakers almost always confuse them, while advanced speakers distinguish them with ease. The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Grammar was one of the first reference books to systematically analyze the difference and explicitly warn about it.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
She is slowly _____ waking up early for work.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
He _____ cycle to school every day when he was young.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
GerundvsInfinitive
Some verbs take a gerund (-ing), others take an infinitive (to + verb), and some take both with different meanings.
Used tovsWould
'Used to' works for both past habits and states; 'would' works only for repeated actions, never for states.
Used to dovsBe used to doing
'Used to do' describes past habits or states that no longer exist; 'be used to doing' describes being accustomed to something.
AvsAn
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy