Teaching the different meanings of "used to "
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Teaching the different meanings of "used to "
My students are having difficulties with the concepts of "used to" as in was at one time, and "used to" as in accustomed to. Does anyone have any suggestions??
Re: Teaching the different meanings of "used to "
Try translating those uses directly to their own language.provner wrote:My students are having difficulties with the concepts of "used to" as in was at one time, and "used to" as in accustomed to. Does anyone have any suggestions??
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Andrew Patterson
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My simplified Venn Diagram:
http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/Cat.html
(don't even go near the original diagram for students) some of the links from it may be OK, though.)
Don't forget there is also utilisation. I give my FCE students this (from the yin yang link):
There are three verbs spelt "use" with three unrelated meanings. These verbs are generally considered to be different verbs rather than different forms of the same verb.
A Use followed by the object, "to" and the infinitive indicates the use to which the object is being put.
B Use in the past tense followed by "to" and the infinitive indicates that something was true in the past, but isn't any more.
C i) Be use to and ii) Get use to followed by the gerund mean respectively:
i) Be accustomed to and ii) Become accustomed to.
Examples
A. I used a hammer to knock in a nail.
B. He used to be fat. (But he isn't any more.)
C. i) John is a miner, he is used to working very hard.
C. ii) Mining is hard work, you have to get used to working very hard.
Then I give practice questions to make sure they've got it.
http://www.geocities.com/endipatterson/Cat.html
(don't even go near the original diagram for students) some of the links from it may be OK, though.)
Don't forget there is also utilisation. I give my FCE students this (from the yin yang link):
There are three verbs spelt "use" with three unrelated meanings. These verbs are generally considered to be different verbs rather than different forms of the same verb.
A Use followed by the object, "to" and the infinitive indicates the use to which the object is being put.
B Use in the past tense followed by "to" and the infinitive indicates that something was true in the past, but isn't any more.
C i) Be use to and ii) Get use to followed by the gerund mean respectively:
i) Be accustomed to and ii) Become accustomed to.
Examples
A. I used a hammer to knock in a nail.
B. He used to be fat. (But he isn't any more.)
C. i) John is a miner, he is used to working very hard.
C. ii) Mining is hard work, you have to get used to working very hard.
Then I give practice questions to make sure they've got it.