accostumed to x used to and other questions

[Falcon]

Hello everybody,

I'm here, again, with lots of doubts and questions.

First of all, I'd like to know when I should use "accostumed to" rather than "used to". For example, can I say (?):

1)"I'm accustomed to the heavy traffic in my city." (do I have to use "to" or "with"?)
2)"We use to spend four hours at day on the traffic."

- Are these sentences correct? I'd like to get more examples with(?) sentences using "accustomed to", if you could...

Now, I have other (or others?) questions:

a)"I'm still waiting for my items but till now(1) I didn't receive(2) them."

• Can I use in #1 "until now", "so far" or "up to now", instead?
• in the #2 can I use "get", instead?

b) When I have shirt, for example, stained (or marked?) and I cannot remove it, what do I say? "It doesn't get off, get away, get out, leave..."?

I don't know if you'll understand what I mean in this case... I hope so.

Well, I think is this for the time being. I thanks in advance for your help.

Falcon

[Tdol]

1 This is fine. 'Accustomed to' is used less in colloquial language than 'used to'.
2 We used to spend four hours a day in the traffic.

a) Yes, to both. In BrE, it would be more natural to say 'haven't received'

b) The stain won't come out.

[BobK]

Originally Posted by Tdol

1 This is fine. 'Accustomed to' is used less in colloquial language than 'used to'.
2 We used to spend four hours a day in the traffic.

a) Yes, to both. In BrE, it would be more natural to say 'haven't received'

b) The stain won't come out.

Note Falcon: that wasn't a typo.

More accustomed examples:

People are being very kind - I'm not accustomed to all this attention.

Take your hand off me young lady - I'm not accustomed to this sort of behaviour. [As Tdol said, it's more common to say 'used to' - so accustomed tends to be used in fairly pompous language. Note, I'm not saying 'accustomed is pompous'; rather, when someone is being pompous, they tend to use more formal words.]

a - all your suggestions are fine; you could also say 'as yet'.
- you could say get used to but it means something different:

We used to spend ... past repetitive/habitual ( check with a grammarian what the term is - I'd prefer to say pretérito imperfeito ) of 'spend'
We are used to spending... ongoing custom
We were used to spending... past custom
We got used to spending... establishment of a past custom

b 'stained (or marked?)' - either, but their meanings are different. When something is marked it's either intentional ('I marked them with a cross' or not a stain: The carpet was marked where the chair had been.

b

[myinnerself]

Originally Posted by BobK

We used to spend ... past repetitive/habitual ( check with a grammarian what the term is - I'd prefer to say pretérito imperfeito ) of 'spend'

Downright accurate, Bobk

[Falcon]

Well, guys, now I think I'm understanding...

So, in this example you gave me "People are being very kind - I'm not accustomed to all this attention" I could say "People are being very kind - I do not used to all this attention". Is this right?

I still have doubts about the example "a". In this case I could say "I'm still waiting for my items but up to now(1) I haven't got(2) them." or "...so far, I didn't get them" or "...until now I haven't received/I didn't get
them." Is really this? All of them have the same meaning in this case?

Now, another problem (to me of course

3)I can't see difference between "will" and "going to". Is there any tip to understand it?

Look at this:

i) I'll wait for you around 10 minutes.
ii) I going to wait for you around 10 minutes.

iii)I'll see you again at night (or by night?)
iv)I going to see you at night

In these examples, have the sentences the same meaning? Are they correct?

Wel, this is all for today.

Thanks,

Falcon

(Bobk, do you speak portuguese?)