This is the Business English Podcast Episode 77.
Get used to this grammar for Business English emails.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection Hey there, Aubrey.
How's everything going? I'm excellent. How are you, Lindsay?
I'm doing great. I'm excited to be on Business English with you today.
And we're getting into a bunch of cool things like grammar, email writing, and something very specific.
Yes, right. This is grammar that matters in business emails.
So this is vital. And I have a question to kind of lead us into this today, Lindsay.
Okay. Let us know, is there something that you used to do that you don't do anymore?
Oh, my gosh. I used to go to the coffee shop more than I do now.
I still go sometimes, but not as regularly.
I drink a lot of coffee in the morning and then because I needed a walk.
Right. I needed to go move my legs and get the sunshine on my skin.
And so I used to go more to the coffee shop in the afternoon.
These days I do it a little bit less, but I still go.
I'm curious. Did you get some kind of like Nespresso or French press or something fancy or just make like a pot of coffee? at the house?
No, I got a drip coffee, which I love. A big drip coffee maker.
I don't really like the French press. It's too messy when it comes to cleaning it.
That is messy. You're very low maintenance, it sounds like, when it comes to coffee.
Yeah, I like good coffee. I don't want bad coffee.
I don't want watery coffee, a good dark roast.
But when it comes to making it, I don't want to mess with the grinds and things.
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I'm the same. We've got an espresso and a Keurig and I'll use both kind of depending on what I want.
But I don't I don't do the grounds either.
I don't do just drip coffee. What about you?
Is there something that you used to do that you don't do anymore?
When I asked you this, I thought of skiing.
I used to ski a lot. And mostly because I live there aren't there are not good ski hills close by.
Really. I skied a lot in Utah and Idaho.
There are some in northern Arizona, but I also feel like I'm getting to it's skiing is something that if you don't do often, you're so sore the next day, right?
You're using all these different muscles.
And so unless I can go often, I don't know if I want to deal with that.
It's true. I was actually just reading last night about Sun Valley, which is in Idaho, your home state.
And it was saying that it's one of the last sort of untouched, genuine mountains.
It hasn't become a veil. It hasn't become an aspen with jewelry shops on your way to the lift.
It's still very low maintenance, but it's got really steep, skiing.
Yeah, it's supposed to be amazing skiing in Sun Valley.
It's far enough from my hometown that I've never been skiing there.
But I did go once for some kind of like high school field trip.
I can't remember even why we were there, but we were in Sun Valley.
I think it was something for debate. Were you on the debate team in high school?
I was. That's cool. Wow. We'll have to talk about that another day.
I know for sure. I'm sure it will come up on one of these episodes.
But I want to point out in the question that I asked Lindsay here said, is there something you used to do?
And you can't hear it. But when it's written, this ends with a D. We recently got a question about this.
We answered part of it on the All Ears English podcast because the question was asking about didn't versus wouldn't.
Yeah. And Lindsay, you and Michelle talked about that over there, right?
What episode was that? That was episode 1937.
If you guys don't also follow All Ears English, you should.
So just open your search bar, type in All Ears English, hit follow, and then search down to episode 1937.
Exactly. Right. So then you'd get the first part of the answer to our listener, Ariel David's question.
He's from Brazil. Amazing question here.
Yeah. And the second part of his question, he's asking about used to versus didn't used to.
And we promised to answer that soon. We're going to do it here on the Business English podcast because this is all about writing.
So it's going to be especially important.
We use this verb a lot in emails and you want to make sure you write the correct one.
Yeah, we've been getting so many questions.
I was just answering a question from a student this week about business emails.
How can we improve our business emails? The stakes are quite high when you're writing a business email, Aubrey, because you don't have the face-to-face interaction, the nonverbal communication.
It's just your words. Exactly. Right. So the grammar does matter.
The spelling does matter. So this is a mistake that you want to make sure you're clear on which one to use.
And we're going to make it very simple here.
It's actually really easy and clear. Once we share, like, what's the difference?
Which one should I use and why? Then you guys will never make this mistake again.
Yes, I love it. So let's get deeper into this.
What do we need to know about used to and used to?
Yeah. Yes. OK, so I know that's the tricky thing you have to remember.
They sound exactly the same. So when you are speaking, do not take a second to stress about this because there is no error when you're speaking.
Even if you're visualizing the wrong word, it doesn't matter.
They sound the same. Right. Right. I love that idea.
This is something that we're only stressing out about when it comes to writing.
Exactly. Right. And high stakes writing like business emails, especially.
Right. So let's dive in. We're going to separate them.
The first one is used to spelled U.S.E.D. and then separate word to write.
So used is ending with a D. It looks like used.
Right. We pronounce it used. Right. Right.
Yes. And so this is a verb. Oh, sorry, Lizzie, go ahead.
No, you go ahead. You explain it to us, please.
Yes. So this is a verb that we use to talk about anything that is a habit or familiar, both in the past or the present.
We use it in two different ways. This is the first one, a habit, right?
So for example, I used to go to the gym, but now I run outside.
I used to ski, like I was saying, you used to go for coffee more often, right?
So It's a habit from the past. Habit. And we do talk a lot, you know, in, I wonder if this particular one would be used more in spoken English, but I suppose in a business email we may, you know, we used to track our website metrics, but we don't anymore.
Exactly. For example. I use this in emails a lot.
Let's give some example sentences of where we might use this in emails because it does come up a lot.
Yeah. So, for example, when you're talking about policy changes, maybe within the company itself or maybe your own T's and C's, terms and conditions to your customers.
We used to accept that form, but we don't anymore.
Exactly right. Imagine this is often something that would be explained through an email rather than a person, you know, a one on one conversation.
Right. We're writing about policy changes about. something within the company, but we're still going to want to use the correct verb.
We're going to want to spell it correctly.
And it's hard if you're just listening to it to know how that's spelled.
Yes, I love that. Or what else, Aubrey? What would be another thing we might do in a business email?
So if you're describing past behaviors, like for example, the receptionist used to come in late, like maybe you're talking to a new employee and explaining something that happened in the past, you often would use this verb.
OK. Yeah. So maybe her her behavior, his or her made a correction there.
His or her behavior changed. Right. Now the receptionist is maybe coming in early or something, whatever.
Or maybe you write like I'm writing to ask about Mary.
She used to work in the accounting department.
So here. Yes, it's her past job, her past behavior.
You're using that to describe to explain who you're talking about.
Yes. I love it. So good. These are great examples or habits around when we send reports to colleagues.
For example, you used to send reports on Tuesdays, but I need you to start sending them Mondays.
Okay. Exactly. And all of these will be written with a D at the end of use.
Use to, you can't hear that D, there's elision there where that sound goes away.
And so but when you write it, you want to make sure to write it correctly, spell it correctly.
Okay, then we have a second meaning for this spelling, which is, it means accustomed to write something that you are used to doing.
Okay, this is good. You know, this talks a lot of it, you could talk about office habits, things you do together with your co workers at the office.
Right. Exactly. Right. You might say we are used to going or we're used to going to that coffee shop because it's close.
Maybe you're inviting someone to go to coffee or half happy hour and you're just sharing what you're accustomed to doing.
We're used to doing that. It makes me think about all the things that Silicon Valley tech professionals are used to doing or getting at work that they may not be getting anymore.
For example, massages. We're used to getting lots of snacks at the office and that's not happening anymore.
We're used to getting, you know, have an in-house masseuse.
You know, we're used to having yoga classes.
It's not just tech Silicon Valley. It's a lot of, you know, dentistry. big corporations that did start to employ these kinds of extracurriculars to in a way to kind of make sure.
I think I heard that Facebook might have had like a laundry service or something crazy like that.
And I think part of it was that companies wanted people to stay on campus longer.
Yes, exactly. I can really see this being useful in emails when you're wanting to explain to someone, maybe like there was a miscommunication, there was something you didn't do.
And it's because, you know, you're used to receiving that instruction earlier, right?
There's something, there's a gap, there's a breakdown here where you're accustomed to something happening a certain way, and that has changed.
Right. So you're you're trying to like let's get on the same page here as far as making sure processes are what we need to happen or what we expect, what we're used to.
It's true. I mean, a lot of our work is every anyone's work is somewhat repetitive on a weekly basis.
The same thing happens every week. Right.
And so if something breaks in that chain, you have to be able to articulate it to whoever is not doing the thing anymore.
Exactly. Right. So that would be extremely useful.
OK, I love it. So then getting into the more examples or do we already?
Yeah, let's give a couple more examples for when this the accustomed to would be used in email.
So, for example, you might say I'm used to sending this in at 5 p.m., but I could send it earlier if you need me to.
Right. So that's where you're sharing what you're accustomed to, what you're used to, but letting someone know you could be flexible if that's needed.
Yeah, exactly. Or at my previous job, we didn't use Zoom, so I'm not used to it.
Oh, tricky. In that sentence, we have a use Zoom and we have to be used to it, right?
So tricky. It's so interesting how just the verb use has the sound of a Z, right?
We didn't use Zoom, especially with those two Zs next to each other.
Use Zoom. I love it. Very good. Very useful and common potential phrases for an email.
See details online. Okay, Aubrey, let's do a little transition here.
Get into the next way of using this. What is it?
Yes. So this is, think of it as didn't used to.
And this is where there's no D at the end of use, right?
It's just written U-S-E. And this is how you're going to know when to use this version.
The reason there's no D is you already have the past tense grammar with did or didn't in the sentence.
So how do you know which one to use? Notice, does the sentence have the word did?
OK, you've already got the past. So really, it's not just used to and used to.
It's used to with a D and didn't used to.
OK, so only when we're talking in the past.
I think this is something that's really good to focus on for our listeners, because I think a lot of native speakers say. still make this mistake.
Oh, absolutely. If you haven't sat down and thought about why do we use which one and which is absolutely native native speakers make this mistake all the time because they sound the same when you speak.
Yeah. And it's even worse when you make it at work.
They probably do make it at work, but you guys are not going to make this mistake.
So let's get into some details. Okay, yes.
So this form of the phrasal verb, right, just like we said, it's always going to contain did in the sentence, and it's always in the past, like you said.
So a couple example sentences, I didn't used to exercise as often as I do now.
So you can see how it's the same meaning as what we were saying.
There's just two different ways to say it, right?
I used to exercise more, or I didn't used to exercise as much.
Interesting. And the next example here is actually in the positive, which is interesting, right?
So you could say, I did used to exercise, but now I don't.
Yes. And grammatically, this is correct.
But I don't know about you, Lindsay, I would not very often use this grammar structure.
I am a lot more likely to just say I used to exercise, but now I don't.
That's correct. But as far as what natives actually say.
I know. That's exactly what I was going to say.
The only time I would really say it this way is when I'm maybe I'm debating like, oh, you never exercised in the past.
No, I did used to exercise. That's true.
Right. When you're really wanting to emphasize, you disagree.
Yeah. Otherwise, if you're just talking about your habits, I used to exercise, but now I don't.
Exactly. Okay, let's share how you're going to see this in emails.
I use this a lot when I'm writing emails.
For example, you might say, we didn't use to copy the VP on emails, but we've now been asked to.
So sort of the same meaning as the other one, there's just two different ways to say it.
Right. And the next one, this client didn't use to request reports, but now they do.
And remember, guys, that used to does not have the D at the end of use, right?
Exactly. Because did is in the sentence.
That's how you're always going to know if I'm saying did or didn't, then I know don't put a D at the end of the verb use.
This is so good, guys. So useful talking about, I think it's especially interesting talking about your daily, you know, your weekly tasks at work and changes and changes in the market.
You know, again, like I said before, talking about Silicon Valley, we're not in the boom anymore that we were in, you know, 2010 to 2020, 2022.
And now we're in a different moment. So what are the changes you're going to see potentially at your workplace?
Right. Absolutely. This could come up in really interesting conversations when you're saying, you know, we didn't used to have to worry about the economy and now we really do.
Super interesting. Super applicable. So, guys, you will not be making this mistake anymore.
Aubrey, what should we make sure our listeners do before we take off the mic, get off the mic today?
Yes. Make sure you're following the podcast.
So many episodes every week, guys. And if you're not subscribed, if you don't follow, you might miss some of them.
So wherever you follow podcasts, search All Ears English and make sure you're subscribed to the Business English podcast.
Exactly. And guys, again, when it comes to emails, which we know is kind of a special beast.
Yes, right for you guys. Because again, like we said at the beginning, there's no nonverbals.
There's no way even with your tone of voice that you can connect.
You're connecting 100% on that written word.
It's really important to get this right.
Right, Aubrey? Exactly right. It is important that you use correct grammar, correct spelling to make those good impressions.
And now I feel like this is a very simple, straightforward way.
For you guys, this tip is going to help you know the difference so you'll know which one to use.
And you can write this correctly in every Business English email.
All right. Great stuff. And we want your questions.
If you guys have specific questions on emails or presentations, anything in business, send your questions in to lindsay at allersenglish.com so we can build an episode for you.
All right. Awesome. So fun, Lindsay. Thanks for joining me today.
Good stuff, Aubrey. I'll talk to you very soon.
See you later. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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