‘GET’ is the protagonist of the series “Get a Life!”. In order to get to know it better, let’s take a closer look at it.
My students frequently ask me,
What is GET about? I just can’t make sense of it.
I feel native speakers use GET for everything – but what does it even mean?
7 facts about the verb GET
- GET is the fifth most frequent verb in English after be, have, do and say.
- It is more natural to use GET in informal speech, rather than Latin verbs like arrive, persuade or obtain.
- It is irregular: get-got-got (AmE: get-got-gotten).
- It rarely stands alone.
- It is an “empty” (delexicalised) verb: It usually needs the company of other words to come to life and have a meaning.
- It usually teams up (forms collocations) with
- nouns
- adjectives
- prepositions
- GET often indicates a change:
- With a noun, it can mean obtain, receive, buy or catch.
- Together with an adjective, it describes a change of state or emotion.
- In combination with a preposition of place, it talks about a movement.
- With a noun, it can mean obtain, receive, buy or catch.
Got curious? Want to know more? Then start to read the series Get a Life!
Get a Life! – The series
- Episode 1: What did you get? Meet George, Ellen and Tom, and find out about GET + noun.
- Episode 2: Getting better? The flight attendant and the book lover. Learn about GET + adjective.
- Episode 3: Getting up and around. George on the move. Learn about Phrasal verbs with GET to talk about movement.
- Episode 4: Do you get it? Ellen is upset about George: A tense phone conversation. Find out about GET replacing ‘understand’ and other verbs.
- Episode 5: What’s she got? George has got to make an effort. See how you can use GET to speak about possession and obligation.
- Episode 6: Nobody likes to get hurt. George’s letter to Ellen. Learn how to use GET in the Passive.
- Episode 7: Lots of things to get done. Preparing a wedding. See how to use GET in the Causative.
- Episode 8: Not everyone gets to do it. Finally meet Sarah, and learn about the two uses of GET to do something.
- Episode 9: Can we get them to do it? It got me thinking. Learn about GET for persuading and motivating people to do something while each of our characters are thinking about the wedding in their own way.