5 exercises — practise the three "used to" structures in engineering contexts.
0 / 15 completed
1 / 15
Which sentence correctly uses "used to" to describe a past habit that no longer holds true?
"The team used to deploy manually every Friday before adopting CI/CD" correctly uses "used to + bare infinitive" to describe a repeated past habit that has since stopped. Option B confuses this with "be used to", which requires a gerund or noun, not a bare infinitive, and describes familiarity rather than a past habit. Option C incorrectly follows "used to" with a gerund, mixing the two structures. Option D incorrectly uses "get used to" (becoming accustomed) with a bare infinitive, which does not fit either structure's grammar.
2 / 15
Which sentence correctly uses "be used to" to describe an engineer's current familiarity with a workflow?
"She is used to reviewing pull requests asynchronously across time zones" is correct: "be used to" takes a gerund (or noun) to describe present familiarity with a situation. Option A incorrectly follows "is used to" with a bare infinitive, which belongs to the different "used to" (past habit) structure. Option C incorrectly combines "used to" (past habit) with a gerund, mixing the two patterns. Option D breaks the sentence grammatically by inserting a finite verb form ("reviews") where a gerund is required.
3 / 15
Which sentence correctly uses "get used to" to describe the process of becoming accustomed to a new tool?
"New hires get used to navigating the monorepo within their first two weeks" is correct: "get used to" (become accustomed to) takes a gerund, describing a process of adjustment. Option A incorrectly follows "get used to" with a bare infinitive, again mixing it with the past-habit "used to" pattern. Option C drops "get", turning this into the past-habit form, which does not fit the intended meaning of adjusting to something new. Option D uses the noun "navigation" without the required preposition-plus-object structure a transitive gerund provides here ("navigating the monorepo").
4 / 15
Which sentence correctly contrasts a discontinued past habit with a current adjustment process, using both structures accurately?
"We used to run everything on bare metal, but we are getting used to managing Kubernetes clusters now" correctly pairs "used to + bare infinitive" for the discontinued past habit with "be getting used to + gerund" for the ongoing adjustment process. Option B swaps the structures onto the wrong clauses and uses infinitives where gerunds are needed. Option C garbles both structures with incorrect verb forms and word order. Option D again swaps the structures onto the wrong clauses, describing the wrong habit as ongoing.
5 / 15
Which sentence correctly uses the negative form of "be used to" to describe unfamiliarity with a new alerting tool?
"The on-call engineers aren't used to receiving alerts through this new dashboard yet" correctly negates "be used to" with "aren't" and keeps the required gerund. Option B incorrectly uses "don't use to", which is not a valid negation pattern for either structure. Option C incorrectly follows "used to" with a bare infinitive instead of the required gerund. Option D incorrectly mixes the negative past-habit form "didn't used to" with a gerund and the word "yet", which does not match the intended present-familiarity meaning.
6 / 15
Alex commented on Sarah's PR: 'I used to think this approach was elegant, but the performance is terrible now.' What does Alex mean?
'Used to' describes a past habit or state that is no longer true. Alex isn't suggesting a different design; he's recalling his *previous* preference for this approach and acknowledging its current problems. The other options misinterpret the use of 'used to' as a factual statement or a suggestion.
7 / 15
During the daily standup, David said: 'I be used to working with PostgreSQL for our data warehousing. It's now all Snowflake.' What is David conveying?
'Be used to' indicates a state of familiarity or adaptation to a situation. David is informing everyone that he *previously* worked with PostgreSQL and is now accustomed to the current environment – Snowflake. This emphasizes his ongoing experience rather than a past habit.
8 / 15
In a Slack message, Maria wrote: 'I get used to the new debugging tool after spending an hour with it. It's surprisingly helpful!' What does Maria mean?
'Get used to' describes a process of adaptation or familiarity gained through repeated exposure. Maria isn't stating that the tool *is* helpful; she's saying she's *becoming* accustomed to it and finding its benefits after using it repeatedly.
9 / 15
Ben wrote in a PR description: 'We used to deploy directly to production from our CI system, but now we've implemented a staging environment.' What is Ben primarily emphasizing?
'Used to' here focuses on a *past* practice – deploying directly. Ben is highlighting that this past method has been replaced by the current staging environment approach. The question isn't about the benefits of staging; it's about the shift in their deployment workflow.
10 / 15
Chloe responded to a bug report: 'I be used to seeing these kinds of errors. It's a known issue with the API integration.' What is Chloe indicating?
'Be used to' signifies familiarity with a situation – in this case, Chloe is indicating she's *previously* encountered similar errors related to the API integration. This suggests it's a documented or recurring problem, not necessarily an urgent one.
11 / 15
Alex commented on Sarah's PR: 'I used to think this approach was elegant, but the performance is terrible now.' What does Alex mean?
'Used to' describes a past habit or state that is no longer true. Alex isn't suggesting a different design; he's recalling his *previous* preference for this approach and acknowledging its current problems. The other options misinterpret the use of 'used to' as a factual statement or a suggestion.
12 / 15
During the daily standup, David said: 'I be used to working with PostgreSQL for our data warehousing. It's now all Snowflake.' What is David conveying?
'Be used to' indicates a state of familiarity or adaptation to a situation. David is informing everyone that he *previously* worked with PostgreSQL and is now accustomed to the current environment – Snowflake. This emphasizes his ongoing experience rather than a past habit.
13 / 15
In a Slack message, Maria wrote: 'I get used to the new debugging tool after spending an hour with it. It's surprisingly helpful!' What does Maria mean?
'Get used to' describes a process of adaptation or familiarity gained through repeated exposure. Maria isn't stating that the tool *is* helpful; she's saying she's *becoming* accustomed to it and finding its benefits after using it repeatedly.
14 / 15
Ben wrote in a PR description: 'We used to deploy directly to production from our CI system, but now we've implemented a staging environment.' What is Ben primarily emphasizing?
'Used to' here focuses on a *past* practice – deploying directly. Ben is highlighting that this past method has been replaced by the current staging environment approach. The question isn't about the benefits of staging; it's about the shift in their deployment workflow.
15 / 15
Chloe responded to a bug report: 'I be used to seeing these kinds of errors. It's a known issue with the API integration.' What is Chloe indicating?
'Be used to' signifies familiarity with a situation – in this case, Chloe is indicating she's *previously* encountered similar errors related to the API integration. This suggests it's a documented or recurring problem, not necessarily an urgent one.
What will I practise in ""Used To" vs "Be Used To" vs "Get Used To" — IT Grammar Exercise"?
Practise distinguishing the past-habit "used to + infinitive" from the accustomed-state "be/get used to + gerund" when describing legacy workflows and tool
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 15 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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