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Highlighting and clarifying vocabulary that you heard in episodes 464 and 465, with
a focus on phrases and uses of the word get.
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If you listened to episodes 464 and 465 you will have heard me telling you to watch
out for certain language that I would be explaining later.
Well, it is now ‘later’ – later has arrived. This is later. So let’s check out some of
that language, shall we?
Check the page for this episode to see the words, phrases and some example
sentences written for you to look at with your eyes and then remember with your
brains (your brain – you’ve only got one, right?)
So, how much stuff did you notice? How many phrasal verbs, collocations and
instances of ‘get’?
I’ve been through the episodes and have picked out some of that language that I
thought was worth highlighting, and there was loads of it, tons of it, considerable
amounts, too much for one episode. So in this one I’m just going to focus on the
uses of get, which is one of the most common verbs in the English language. Let’s
consider all the uses of ‘get’ which came up in the last two episodes.
Open a dictionary and look up this little word. You’ll see pages and pages of
entries. Different meanings, grammatical functions, uses, phrasal verbs, fixed
expressions and so on.
You can’t underestimate the importance and usefulness of this little word. Native
English speakers use get an awful lot. It’s one of the features of native level
English.
Now, actually I should point out that it’s not just this one word on its own. That’s
slightly misleading. Instead you realise that you’re not learning ‘get’ over and over
again, you’re learning all the many different phrases in which it occurs. So, don’t
focus on what ‘get’ really means – on its own it doesn’t mean that much, that’s why
it’s a delexical verb. The meaning is to be found in the whole phrase – so that
means you need to pay particular attention to how the word collocates with
prepositions like ‘in’ or ‘on’ and auxiliary verbs like ‘have’ and also how
these phrases affect the grammar of the sentence (e.g. if they’re followed by a
gerund or an infinitive).
Sounds difficult? That’s because it is. In fact, I think ‘get’ is an example of exactly
how English can be extremely tricky for learners of English.
Some of the ‘easier’ things about our language are – there are not so many verb
forms (e.g. with ‘go’ – to go, go, goes, going, went, gone, been) or verb endings (-
ed, s or es) , no gender – so no need to change the gender of the adjective or
pronoun and so on. Obviously I would say English was easy because it’s easy for
me and I know that, admittedly, there are some tricky bits like some adjective and
adverb morphology (with comparatives and superlatives – er, ier, est, iest), our
irregular verbs and spelling are an irregular nightmare, we have lots of vocabulary
with many synonyms, indirect language is hard to deal with, modal verbs are hard
to get to grips with and there’s massive diversity in the way the language is spoken
with many different accents around the world and so on, but compared to
something like French or German there is less grammar to deal with, like the
number of verb forms for example is quite limited.
I guess this is why it’s fairly common for people to get to a certain level of
functional English (intermediate level) quite quickly but then get stuck at the
intermediate plateau. Many people get to that level where they can basically say
what they want to say and hold down a basic conversation but then that’s it, they
stay there or they get stuck there because they hit a wall when it comes to the
more complex stuff – the really nitty-gritty of native level English usage – the stuff
that allows you to communicate shades of grey, subtlety, nuance and humour.
This is where English becomes particularly tough stuff. It’s the sheer diversity of
little phrases which are created by combining certain ‘delexical verbs’ with
prepositions, pronouns, gerunds and infinitives.
‘Delexical verbs’ are verbs which don’t carry much meaning on their own. Often
they are little verbs. E.g. get, have, keep, put, take, make, give. They combine with
other words in phrases. It’s the phrase as a whole that carries the specific
meaning.
We end up with sentences like: “I’ve just got to get in on some of that action.” or “I
just can’t get used to being out of the loop.” or “I’ve got to get round to getting you
back for that thing that you did to me.”
1. Is the meaning obvious from the words? Not really. The only big word there
is “action”. All the others are little ‘grammar words’. The whole thing is quite
idiomatic.
2. Is it easy to spot all the words being used when someone says it? Not really
3. You might eventually understand it, but can you use and pronounce it quickly
and confidently?
Jim: Do you want to get in on some of this action? *points to chips and salsa*
(from the Urban Dictionary – which isn’t always reliable by the way, there’s a lot of
stupid, rude slang in there)
“I can’t get used to being out of the loop” = I’m in a really difficult position
because I don’t know what’s going on and I haven’t known what’s going on for a
while. This position is not getting easier for me.” e.g. you’ve got no internet
connection and life just doesn’t seem normal.
“I’ve got to get round to getting you back for that thing that you did to me.”
This is where English gets really quite difficult. It’s a nightmare, I know.
A lot of these ‘bits of English’ with get are phrasal verbs, others are just fixed
expressions. They are difficult, right? But what are you going to do? Ignore them?
Pretend they don’t exist? Bad move. You’ll end up speaking an unnatural form of
English. You’ll end up not really understanding what native speakers are talking
about or getting at.
So, don’t underestimate the importance of little verbs like ‘get’ or ‘make’ or ‘put’.
They’ve very common and this is the real English that is used all the time every
day, but which is hard to learn because it’s probably quite different from your
native language and because they’re not the ‘big heavy latin words’ that are more
noticeable. These delexical words are like the ninjas of English. Yes, more ninjas
on the podcast. I am obsessed with ninjas.
There are actually about 29 different uses or different phrases with ‘get’ in this
episode. Maybe more.
That’s a lot, I know. Normally in lessons we don’t teach more than about 12 words
at a time. There’s a good chance not every phrase will stick.
It can feel overwhelming. There are so many usages and phrases. It feels like you’ll
never learn them all. But don’t worry about it all too much. It does take a while to
pick up these difficult aspects of English but it’s not impossible. It helps if you stay
positive.
So, let’s carry on and look at the ways in which ‘get’ is used with some examples
from episodes 464 and 465.
Uses of GET
Get on its own can mean a few things. See below for examples.
The list below is in order of frequency from episodes 464 and 465. The most
frequent uses in those episodes are at the top of the list.
Get = receive (get a letter), obtain (get permission to do something), achieve (get a
good result)
e.g. (to get an idea, to get the giggles, get the motivation to do something)
e.g. get old, get hot, get dark, get famous, get bored
Get = understand
e.g. We need to get through the woods before the sun goes down.
Things got a little bit difficult in the middle of the marathon but I got through it.
try to get through the bits about how I make the podcast
I’ll explain the vocab later, which should help you to get your head around it
all
To get into something (literal) = to enter something (e.g. get into the car please
sir) or change into a particular state (e.g. get into the right mood to do something)
I just try to get into the right frame of mind to record an episode
To get back (to something) = to return to a place, or return to something you were
doing before
e.g. “Get back! Get back! Get back to where you once belonged. Get back Jo Jo!”
I have to come up with ideas and get them (my ideas) across to my audience
How to actually get the message across
To get on with it = Start doing something that you should be doing.
To get something done = do it, finish it – ‘get’ is a causative verb here – either you
do it or someone else does it
What’s the difference between ‘get someone to do something’ and ‘get someone
doing something’?
The first one means persuade someone to do it, and it might only be once. (e.g. I
got him to give me the money)
The second one means that you make someone do something over and over again,
or put them in a state, not just do one single thing. (e.g. “now you’ve got me
worrying” or “I really want to get you running every day”)
To get used to doing something = to become accustomed to doing something, to
become familiar with something
To get the hang of doing something = like ‘get used to -ing’ but more informal, to
learn how to do something
To get the most out of something = to achieve the most from something that is
possible, to take advantage of something
To get in touch (with someone) = to contact someone by phone, text, email etc
Get in touch
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