Hi there,

 

First of all Merry Christmas to all this awesome community and Happy New Year 2017! Hope you are all making the best of these days off.

 

I wonder if you could help me out with the following question. Two days ago I was giving a private tuition when my student asked me this while doing some exercises. I told him that "get used to" is used to convey the idea that sth is new for you and that you �re becoming familiar to it. Whereas "be used to" is used to express that sth is not new for you anymore. However, when he faced sentences like: "I soon _______ sharing a flat" / "I find really hard ________ living in a pace such as Seville. It �s too hot" he couldn �t make head nor tail- nor could I explain to him- why "got used to" /"to get used to" is the only possible right answer since the idea you want to convey is that sharing a flat was not sth new for you. As a last resort, I asked him to translate the sentence into Spanish, which is sth I am not keen on doing. Could anyone provide me with an explanation that would throw light on this question?  Could we use "to be used to living" in the second sentence? I don �t think so, but I �m not an expert though.Thanks in advance. 

 

 

Hola, Pedro,

This explanation might be helpful. 

"get used to" is for a change in the situation.

"be used to" is for an existing situation.

 

In both of your examples, there has been a change, so your answers are correct.

 

In your second example, you left out "it" and the "l" in "place".  I find it really hard to get used to living in a place such as Seville. Also, I think you meant to say, "... the idea you want to convey is that sharing a flat was something new for you".

 

In theory, you could say "I was soon used to sharing a flat", but it sounds unnatural.

 

In the second example, it is very rare to use "to be used to" in the infinitive form, so the sentence insists on "to get used to". 

 

I hope this helps.

Bruce