• Our new boss is an American.  When he came to India he found driving on the left difficult.  Because. he wasn’t used to it.  OR – he wasn’t used to driving on the left.

He came to understand he had to practise it well before he could drive on road safely.

After a lot of practice, driving on the left has become easy to him.  Now he has got used to driving on the left.

• I was not used to the weather in London, so I returned immediately.
• Our new flat is on a busy street.  I expect we will get used to the noise, at the moment it’s very disturbing.
• Johny has been transferred to Kochi, 70 km away from home .  Now he has to get up by 5′ o clock in the morning.  He finds it  difficult because he isn’t used to getting up so early.
• These people are from a remote village.  They are not used to the city style of life.

After ‘ Be used to’ if a verb follows , ING has to be added to the verb.  But , if it follows a Noun no change takes place.

• He is used to working hard . OR – he is used to hard work
• He was used to working hard. OR – he was used to hard work.
• I am used to getting up early.( i.e I don’t find any difficulty in getting up early and it is quite normal as far as I am concerned.)

Note :  Differentiate ‘I used to do’  and ‘ I am used to doing’.  They are altogether different structurally and meaning-wise.

• The old lady is used to living alone. ( i.e  She lives alone and she doesn’t find it strange or difficult because she has been living alone for some time.)

Now compare the following sentence.

• The old lady used to live alone.(i.e she lived alone in the past but no longer lives alone).

This usage is highly useful to express actions that happened in the past, but no longer happen.

• He used to play cricket a lot but he doesn’t play very often now.
• A: Do you go to the cinema very often?
• B: Not now, but I used to.
• I used to travel a lot.  But now-a-days I have no time to do so.

Used to…..( for something that was true but is not true any more) .

• They used to be very rich, but after they failed in their business they are quite badly off.
• This building is now a cinema.  It used to be an auditorium.
• She used to have very long hair when she was in standard VII.
• They used to live in a small village but now they are in a big town.
• There used to be many mango trees.  Now there is only one.

Note :-  Used to do something’ is past, and it is not used in the present form.  The normal question form is  ‘Did (you) use to……………..?

• A:  Did you use to eat a lot of sweets when you were a child?
• B: I didn’t use to.

The negative form is ‘ Didn’t use to   (used not to …..is also possible)

• I didn’t use to like him.

OR . I used not to like him.

As safe as houses = completely safe.( alludes to the paying character of house property as investment- an expression to  satisfy a doubting person ” Oh it’s as safe as houses”

• I locked your jewellery in a drawer, so it ‘s as safe as houses.
• If you buy treasury bonds, your money will be as safe as houses.

Bring home to someone = to make someone understand something much more clearly than they did before.

• When I saw for myself the damage that had been caused, that really brought home to me the scale of the disaster.
• The crash brought home the danger of drinking and driving.
• The episode has brought home to me the pointlessness of this war.

Hold the key to = to have control of something ; be the decisive factor in.

• Tourism holds the key to the region’s economic recovery.
• This passage holds the key to understanding the entire novel.

Be past/pass one’s sell-by date = If someone is past their sell-by date, that person is not wanted or considered useful any more because they are too old.

• There is plenty of time to have a baby.  I am not past my sell-by date yet.
• The company is forcing my mother to retire because they think she’s past her sell-by date.
• That player is definitely past his sell-by date; he hasn’t had a good season in years.

Be stuck in a rut = too fixed in a particular type of job , activity , method etc and needing to change.

• I need to change my job – after 15 years here I feel I’m stuck in a rut.
• We’re stuck in a rut ; let us move abroad for the summer and shake things up.
• I had so many ambitions when I first graduated from college, but now I feel like I am in a rut.

Middle of the road = not extreme and is acceptable to or liked by most people.

• I am looking for a middle-of-the-road option.  I don’t need a high end TV, but I don’t want the cheapest one either.
• They adopted a sensible , middle-of-the-road policy on defence spending.

Leave a sour taste in one’s mouth = to leave a bad feeling or memory with someone.( a negative impression).

• The way they conducted the interview left a sour taste in my mouth.  I don’t think I’d accept the job even if they offered it.
• I know Jim is your friend, but he was so rude at dinner; it just left a sour taste in my mouth.
• The way the waitress treated us left a sour taste in my mouth and I never went back.

To the bitter end = to the final, most critical extremity such as death or total defeat.

• My father stayed beside my dying mother’s bed to the bitter end.
• The worker would fight to the bitter end.

Bear fruit = yield positive results.

• Eventually her efforts bore fruit and she got the job she wanted.
• Our apple tree didn’t bear fruit this year.
• Don is convinced that this plan will bear fruit if we just keep working on it.

Chink in one’s armour = A minor but very detrimental flaw or weakness.

• Yeah, he’s brilliant, but his violent temper has destroyed many business relationships.  It’s really the chink in his armour.
• Putting things off to the last minute is the chink in Mary’s armour and is bound to get her in trouble one day.

Whet one’s appetite =  to awaken a desire/ increase the feeling/stimulate appetite or desire; to sharpen the blade of( a tool or weapon).

• Cinemas use trailers to whet viewers’ appetite and make them want to see the whole film.
• She took out her dagger and began to whet its blade in even rhythmic strokes.
• I have been listening to V.R.Dilipkumar’s classical concerts for many years and  it whetted my appetite for Carnatic raagas.

The icing on the cake = an additional benefit or positive aspect to something that is already considered positive.

• Having all of you here for my birthday has really been wonderful!  This gift is an icing on the cake.
• The athlete received a gold medal and the icing on the cake was that he also received a sponsorship deal.

Be caught in the crossfire = be involved in an unpleasant situation in which people are arguing with each other, though you do not want to be involved.

• They say they are caught in the crossfire between the education establishment and the government.

Burn one’s bridges (boats) = do something which makes it impossible to return to an earlier state.

• I think you really burned your bridges when you announced you were quitting and proceeded to insult your boss in front of the whole staff.
• She’s young, so I don’t think she realises that she’ll be burning her bridges if she goes to work for their competitors.

When it comes to the crunch = when a situation becomes extremely serious and a decision must be made.

• If it comes to the crunch and you and your husband do split up, you can always stay with us.
• If it comes to the crunch, I’ll resign over this.

Run around like headless chickens = to act frantically without control, with haste and in a careless/senseless manner – They are panicking when they should be thinking carefully.

• He ran around like a headless chicken after he missed his flight to the US.
• It is important to get everything organised for the meeting today so that we don’t end up running around like headless chickens.
• Instead of running around like a headless chicken, make a list of the things you need to finish and then work on them in that order.

Put out feelers = make informal enquiries , talk to people unofficially, discreetly try to learn something ( alludes to animals’ feelers such as antenna or tentacles used to find food.)

• He has been putting out feelers to see how employees might react to such a policy.
• Why don’t you put out your feelers and see if anyone is interested in buying.
• I don’t know if anyone would really want a job like this one, but we could put out feelers and see if anyone is interested.

Bite the bullet = decide to do something difficult or unpleasant that one has been putting off or hesitating over.

• Decisions have to be taken and as director you have got to bite the bullet.
• I hate going to the dentist; but I will just have to bite the bullet.
• Tour operators may be forced to bite the bullet and cut prices.

Have butterflies in stomach = feel very nervous.

• I always have butterflies in my stomach just before an exam.
• As it was his first stage performance he had butterflies in his stomach.

The law of the jungle = a situation in which there are no laws or rules to govern the way that people behave.  A state of ruthless competition or self interest.( A system or mode of action in which the strongest survive, presumably as animals.)

• The recent price war among airlines was governed by the law of the jungle.

A can of worms = A situation that causes a lot of problems for you when you start to deal with it.

• Taking that girl home turned out to be a can of worms.
• Corruption is a serious problem , but nobody has yet been willing to open up that can of worms.
• I think if we start asking questions we’ll open up a whole new can of worms.  Perhaps we should just accept the situation.