Verb Patterns: –ing forms and infinitives

We use :

• used to + infinitive without to to talk about states or actions that happened regularly in the past but they are no longer true:

• I used to swim in the river.

• She used to dance a lot.

• be used to + '-ing' form of the verb or a noun to say that we are very familiar with something:

• We**'re used to** go to bed early.

• She**'s not used to** the hot cities.

• get used to + '-ing' form of the verb or a noun to describe the process of getting familiar with something:

• We got used to eating a lot of carrot when we lived in Australia.

• How long did it take you to get used to the food here?

With verbs of senses such as see, hear, watch, notice we can use two patterns. We use:

• see / hear / watch / notice somebody do something when we want to say that we observed the whole action (and we know how it ends):
• I watched the children cross the street. (I saw them as they reached the other side.)
• We heard John sing our national anthem. (We heard the whole song.)
• see / hear / watch / notice somebody doing something when we want to say that we observed the action in progress:
• We watched the whales swimming off the coast of Patagonia.
• I saw them sunbathing on the balcony.