After a while you get used to living alone.

[kadioguy]

a. After a while you get used to living alone.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-chinese-traditional/live

b. Eventually you'll get/become used to the smells of the laboratory.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/laboratory

I think that both (a) and (b) refer to the future, but why is (a) in the present simple while (b) in the future tense (will)?

My thoughts:

1. Sentence (a) means a fact or the truth, so the present simple is used. While sentence (b) means something will happen in the future, so the future tense is used.

2. That said, the tenses between them can be exchanged and still mean practically the same.

What do you think?

 

[emsr2d2]

You're right - a is presented as a statement of fact that applies to everyone. It's similar to saying "After a while, one gets used to living alone". It doesn't refer only to the future.
b does refer to the future and is directed solely at the reader/listener.

I don't consider them interchangeable.

 

[kadioguy]

You're right - a is presented as a statement of fact that applies to everyone. It's similar to saying "After a while, one gets used to living alone". It doesn't refer only to the future.
b does refer to the future and is directed solely at the reader/listener.

I don't consider them interchangeable.

But look at this:

The work is hard, but after a while, you get used to it.
https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/you

This sentence also looks like "directed solely at the reader/listener", and it is in the present simple. So I would say there's an indefinite boundary between "to everyone" (a statement of fact) and "solely to the reader/listener" (referring to the future), and that's why I thought the tenses could be roughly interchangeable.