Be used to and Get used to- Ranking

Be and get used to ranking discussion

Choose a topic like those on the next page and see if you can agree on how difficult it is to get used to, how many people are used to it and/ or how quickly people get used to it.

Useful phrases for agreeing and disagreeing with rankings I totally agree./ That’s exactly what I would say. I would go even further and say that… I wouldn’t go so far. I’d say that…

 

It is/ It would be/ It was	(Nowadays) (in this country)	It takes/ It would take/ It took (me)	It takes/ It would take/ It took (me)	Most people
(absolutely) impossible to get used to	everyone is used to	forever to get used to	a lifetime to get used to	instantly get used to
extremely difficult to get used to	virtually everybody is used to	an incredibly long time to get used to	decades to get used to	quickly get used to
really hard to get used to	almost all of us are used to	a really long time to get used to	years to get used to	fairly quickly get used to
fairly difficult to get used to	the vast majority of people are used to	a fairly long time to get used to	months to get used to	slowly get used to
a little tricky to get used to/ not so tough to get used to	many people are used to	not such a long time to get used to	weeks to get used to	very slowly get used to
very easy to get used to	some people are used to	very little time to get used to	days to get used to	eventually get used to
no problem at all to get used to	few people are used to	no time at all to get used to	a few hours to get used to	never get used to
	very few people are used to		a few minutes to get used to
	almost no one is used to		only a few seconds to get used to
	nobody is used to		no time to get used to

Possible topics

• big changes
• changes in food and drink
• changes in prices
• changes to communication
• changes to dating
• changes to manners
• changes to people’s behaviour
• changes to (public) transport
• changes to working life
• growing up/ getting older
• life events/ milestones
• living with other people
• living alone
• married life
• moving (house/ school/ office/ city/…)
• new music
• new products
• new rules
• new things appearing
• old products
• political correctness/ woke culture
• seasons/ weather
• studies (starting university, etc)
• technology
• things disappearing (shops closing, companies going bankrupt, etc)
• things in other countries/ things from other countries/ cultural differences

Ask about anything above which you aren’t sure about, discussing how long etc as a class each time.

Rank the language in each group below, then look above to check:

• (absolutely) impossible to get used to
• a little tricky to get used to/ not so tough to get used to
• extremely difficult to get used to
• fairly difficult to get used to
• no problem at all to get used to
• really hard to get used to
• very easy to get used to

 

• almost all of us are used to
• almost no one is used to
• everyone is used to
• few people are used to
• many people are used to
• nobody is used to
• some people are used to
• the vast majority of people are used to
• very few people are used to
• virtually everybody is used to

 

• a fairly long time to get used to
• a really long time to get used to
• an incredibly long time to get used to
• forever to get used to
• no time at all to get used to
• not such a long time to get used to
• very little time to get used to

 

• a few hours to get used to
• a few minutes to get used to
• a lifetime to get used to
• days to get used to
• decades to get used to
• months to get used to
• no time to get used to
• only a few seconds to get used to
• weeks to get used to
• years to get used to

 

• eventually get used to
• fairly quickly get used to
• instantly get used to
• never get used to
• quickly get used to
• slowly get used to
• very slowly get used to
  

Try to remember or think of suitable phrases to go in each gap below. The boxes with “X” are blank above and so don’t need to be filled.

It is/ It would be/ It was	(Nowadays) (in this country)	It takes/ It would take/ It took (me)	It takes/ It would take/ It took (me)	Most people
(absolutely) impossible to get used to	everyone is used to	forever to get used to	a lifetime to get used to
	virtually everybody is used to	an incredibly long time to get used to		quickly get used to
really hard to get used to		a really long time to get used to	years to get used to
	the vast majority of people are used to	a fairly long time to get used to	months to get used to	slowly get used to
a little tricky to get used to/ not so tough to get used to	many people are used to	not such a long time to get used to		very slowly get used to
very easy to get used to	some people are used to	very little time to get used to	days to get used to
no problem at all to get used to	few people are used to	no time at all to get used to	a few hours to get used to	never get used to
X		X	a few minutes to get used to	X
X		X		X
X	nobody is used to	X	no time to get used to	X

Check above. Other answers are possible, so please check if you wrote something different.