So I got angry this morning because I got a phone call at 7am so I got up and got the
phone and it was the police they said that my car had got stolen during the night but
they had got it back and now I had to get it back from their car impound. So I got dressed
and I got the bus into town but when I got there I realized they had got it wrong.
I haven't got a car. Sometimes I get confused.
So today we're going to talk about.........
GET..... brilliant....you'll go far. We are going to
look at the various uses of GET. It's not as difficult as you think but get is tricky
in one sense and we'll explain when that is. So to find out more stay tuned.
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk the channel that goes deeper into everything about the
English language and today we're going to look at the different uses of GET. This is
the one of the most common questions I get as a teacher "How do you use GET?", "Why are
there so many different meanings?", What does it all mean?". It seems complicated but as
you'll see it's really quite simple however, there is one situation where it can be a challenge
and we'll go into that later. Before we start just just a word about the differences between
British and American English. In British English - GET is conjugated GET - GOT - GOT (GOT being
the past participle) But in American English it's GET, GOT, GOTTEN (GOTTEN is the part
participle). So if you hear someone say GOTTEN then they're speaking American English but
I'm British so I'll be using the British form in this video.
So let's look at first meaning and that is GET followed by a noun which means, RECEIVE,
OBTAIN, BUY, CATCH or FETCH. FETCH just means take and bring back from another place. So
let's look at a few examples Receive - "I got a letter this morning"
Catch - "I got the train" (I caught the train) "I got a book from the library" - here GOT
means obtained "I just got a new car". - means BUY "I just
bought a new car" "I'm going to get Julie from the station"
- Here GET will replace FETCH So as you can see GET can be a bit ambiguous
"I just got a car" Does it mean I received a car or I just bought a car? So be careful
about that but generally you know the meaning from the context. However, if it's not clear
then use another word
So next you have GET+ adjective which means BECOME. So for example.
If someone insults you you get angry If you take the medicine you will get well
now it's your turn If you don't sleep for a long time.... you
get tired. I'm not young any more.... I'm
getting old.. If you don't eat for a long time you ....
get hungry. There's nothing to do I'm.....
getting bored.
The third meaning of GET means to arrive at a destination.
For example "I got home late last night" (you could say
"I arrived home late last night" "We'll by the tickets when we get to the station."
"By the time she got to the top of the mountain she was exhausted"
This is the most common way of talking about arriving at a destination in English - so
do use it.
The next use of GET is an informal way to mean to understand.
For example: "I get what you're saying means " I understand
what you're saying. "I get the first part of the book but I don't
get the ending. " You can just use the expression "I get it"
to mean "I understand", and the negative is "I don't get it" "I don't get what your saying
which means "I don't understand"
Next we have HAVE GOT TO or HAS GOT TO which we use for obligation. It's exactly the same
as "HAVE TO except that HAVE GOT TO is only used in the present tense. let's look at some examples
"I'm late, I've got to go"
"If she wants the job she got to improve her English."
"We've get to wake up early tomorrow."
The next meaning of get is HAVE GOT + a noun or an adjective with a noun is to talk about
possession For example "She's got a new boyfriend."
"He's got a strange haircut." "John's get a ticket for the cricket match."
HAVE GOT in this sense is exactly the same
as HAVE for possession but it's only used in the present tense. HAVE GOT is the most
common way to talk about possession in English so do learn that too.
The next meaning of GET is GET in the passive form to signify that something (something
usually bad) has happened. The standard form of the passive is the verb
TO BE + past participle but it's also possible with GET. It's a little more informal it gives
a little emphasis and it's very common. So let's have a look at a few examples.
"David got fired from his job for insulting his boss. "
"Our house got flooded during the storm. " "The expedition ended badly when he got eaten
by cannibals. "
The next meaning is GET + past participle to replace a reflexive verb. In English when
we are talking informally about reflexive actions we often use GET. For example "I get
dressed". "I dress myself" is perfectly correct but most people will say "I get dressed".
"I got dressed this morning", Other examples of this "They got married". "He got lost".
The next meaning is GET is GET + preposition and this means to change position.
For example TO GET UP. What do you do when you get up? you change position
"Get out of my house" - get out! - change your position from here (to another place
not near me) "We need to get away" - make a distance from
here to another place. You get on the bus.
You get off the train. All this means "change position"
Ok you should know also that there are a few phrasal verbs with GET and some expressions
that don't fall into the categories I just talked about. And we'll just look at some
of the very common expressions ok so for example.
"To get rid of something" that means to abandon, to throw away, to sell for example "we need
to get rid of our old car", "I've got a lot of books that I don't read, we need to get
rid of them". "to get on with" that means to have a good
friendship or a friendly relationship with someone. For example.
"I get on with my flatmates", or "I get on well with my flatmates". Flatmates are people
you share an apartment with. The negative would be "I don't get on with
my". "I don't get on with my neighbours, "
Another common phrasal verb is "to get away with something" that means to escape without
punishment. For example. "The bank robbers got away with 2 million dollars" that means
they escaped and they didn't get caught.
"To get your own back" means take revenge for something so for example. "He's beaten
me in the last 12 tennis tournaments but I've been training hard and I'm going to get my
own back next time. "
Now I did tell you that there is one case where GET can be tricky and that's in written
English. In spoken English it's fine you can use it more or less as you wish but in written
English and in formal spoken English you should be a little careful. Think of it a bit like
putting salt on your food. A little sprinkling of salt gives your food some flavour but if
you put too much on then your food becomes inedible. And it's the same with GET a little
bit is fine but don't overdo it. And in fact native English speakers sometimes have difficulty
finding alternatives to GET. So let's look at the story we started off with and see how
we can do it again without using GET
"So I got angry this morning because I got a phone call at 7am so I got up and I got
the phone and it was the police they said that my car had got stolen during the night
but they had got it back and now I had to get it from their car impound. So I got dressed
and I got the bus into town but when I got there I realized they had got it wrong. I
haven't got a car. Sometimes I get confused."
Let's try that again without GET
"So I became angry this morning because I received a phone call at 7am so I woke up
and picked up the phone and it was the police they said that my car had been stolen during
the night but they had found it and now I had to retrieve it from their car impound.
So I dressed myself. and took the bus but when I arrived I realized that they had made
a mistake - I don't have a car. Sometimes I get confused. " (I leave in the GET in the
end because I said it's ok to use it a little bit in written English).
So there you are I hope you got all that. And thank you for watching more English language
videos coming soon.