Be Used To vs Get Used To: Two Structures, One Confusion [2026]

Be used to and get used to look almost identical, and learners treat them as the same thing. They are not. One describes a state you have already reached; the other describes the process of reaching it. Getting this wrong rarely stops you being understood, but it is the kind of small structural slip that a careful listener notices immediately.

The whole distinction comes down to state versus process.

Be used to: the finished state

Be used to means you are already familiar with something; it no longer feels strange. The adjusting is done.

• I am used to the traffic now. (it no longer bothers me)
• She is used to working nights.
• They are not used to the cold.

The test: if you could replace it with "accustomed to" or "comfortable with", you want be used to. It describes where you have arrived, not the journey.

Get used to: the process

Get used to means you are in the middle of becoming familiar; the adjusting is still happening.

• I am getting used to the traffic. (still adjusting)
• It took months to get used to working nights.
• You will get used to it.

The verb get carries the sense of change. Swap it in whenever the situation is ongoing rather than settled.

The -ing rule that catches everyone

Both structures are followed by a noun or the -ing form, never the bare infinitive.

• I am used to getting up early. (not "used to get up")
• She is getting used to the commute.

This is where be used to collides with the separate structure used to, which describes a past habit and does take the infinitive ("I used to get up early"). Same words, different grammar. If that split feels slippery, it sits within the wider system covered in our complete English grammar guide.

Putting it together

State or process: that is the only question. Be used to for where you have arrived, get used to for the adjusting still under way, and an -ing form after both. The structure had better is another subtle pattern worth mastering alongside it. Handling a pair this subtle correctly is a clear sign your grammar has moved past the rules and into real control. A free English level test will place your English on the CEFR scale so you can see how far that control already reaches.