Compare "back then" and "used to it"

In A2 #28 you learnt used to — "it was so in the past, but not now": I used to live in a village. There was also a warning there: there is a similar structure, be used to, and it means something quite different. Now let's look at both, and with them at get used to and would about the past.

Three structures with the word used:

used to — a review of A2 #28. It talks only about the past and only about something that has stopped: I used to smoke. — I smoked before, and now I don't. Questions and negatives take did, and then the -d disappears: Did you use to play football? I didn't use to like coffee. With there you get "there was … here before": There used to be a cinema here. There is no present used to: about what you usually do now, you say usually — I usually get up at seven.

be used to — "it's normal for me". This is a state: you have already got used to it, and it is not hard or strange for you. be changes for the person and the tense, and used to stays as it is:

Why -ing comes after be used to. Here to is not the particle before a verb but a preposition, like in in interested in (B1 #26) or for in apologise for (B1 #16). And after a preposition a verb takes the -ing form. The check: if you can put a noun in place of the verb — I'm used to the cold — then to is a preposition, and the verb after it will be I'm used to working.

get used to — "become used to". This is a process: something was unfamiliar, and it is becoming normal. get changes its tense like any verb:

I've got used to it and I'm used to it mean almost the same: the first says that you have gone the way from unfamiliar to normal, the second says how things are now.

How to tell them apart in a second. Look at the word before used:

• there is nothing before it (I used to) — it is the past, followed by the base form;
• there is be before it (I'm used to, She was used to) — "it's normal", followed by -ing;
• there is get before it (I'm getting used to, You'll get used to) — "become used to", followed by -ing.

Compare:

would about the repeated past. In a story about the past you can say would + a verb instead of used to — about actions that happened again and again: Every summer we would go to my grandparents'. My grandfather would take us fishing. — every summer this happened, again and again. The short form is 'd: We'd swim in the river every day. A story usually opens with used to or a time phrase (When I was a child…, Every summer…) and then goes on with would: this is how a memory sounds.

would has two limits:

• only actions, not states. With the verbs be, have, live, like, know only used to works: I used to have a dog, but not ✗ I would have a dog. That one means "I would have a dog (if…)" — the second conditional (B1 #8);
• it needs a past context. Without one, I would go to the cinema is understood as "I would go (if I could)".

Clues in the meaning. "In the past (but not now)", "again and again back then" — used to or would. "It's normal for me", "it isn't hard for me" — be used to. "Used to it" in the sense "at last it feels normal" — have got used to. "It's becoming normal", "it will become normal", "it still feels strange" — get used to.

More examples:

Don't say this. ✗ I got used to get up early → ✓ I got used to getting up early. After get used to, as after be used to, comes -ing.

Check yourself. Put in the form: I used to ___ (drive) and I'm used to ___ (drive). A friend has moved to a new country and finds everything strange. Tell them, in a short sentence, that in time it will feel normal. Can you say When I was a child, I would have a cat?