GRAMMAR: Phrasal verbs: Understanding the verb 'get'

Have you ever looked up the word get in a dictionary?

If you have, you probably noticed something surprising: it has dozens of meanings!

That’s because get is one of the most flexible verbs in English. It can mean receive, become, arrive, obtain, understand, and much more. However, things become even more interesting when get is combined with another word.

For example:

• get over

• get through

• get together

• get along

• get away

At first, many English learners try to translate get by itself. Unfortunately, that usually makes phrasal verbs more confusing.

Instead, think of each expression as one complete idea.

For example, don’t ask yourself:

“What does get mean?”

Ask yourself:

“What does get over mean?”

The same happens with get through, get by, or get together. Each combination creates a completely different meaning.

The good news is that English speakers don’t memorize these expressions one word at a time—they learn them as chunks, or complete pieces of language.

That’s exactly what you should do.

The best way to learn phrasal verbs is not by memorizing long vocabulary lists.

Instead, notice how they appear in real conversations.

In the next listening, you’ll hear several GET phrasal verbs used naturally by Claudette and Emilia. Try to understand their meaning from the context before checking the transcript.

Don’t learn the verb. Learn the whole expression.

Common GET Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal Verb	Meaning
get up	leave your bed
get in	enter or arrive (car, taxi, train)
get out	leave or exit
get on	board a bus, train, or plane
get off	leave a bus, train, or plane
get back	return
get away	escape or go on holiday
get over	recover from something
get through	survive or finish something difficult
get along (with)	have a good relationship
get together	meet socially
get by	manage with what you have
get into	become interested in something
get out of	avoid doing something
get rid of	eliminate or throw away
get across	communicate an idea successfully
get ahead	become successful
get around	travel around or move from place to place
get down	make someone feel sad
get through to	make someone understand or reach someone by phone

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