Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com,
and today we're going to have a look at the verb "to get",
and the different uses of it, or some of the different uses. It's used all the time
and in different ways. So, there are too many uses to look at in one lesson, so there will
be another lesson on this as well. So, look out for that one, too. Okay? So, the verb
"to get", it's a very, very common English word, used all the time in many different ways.
So, let's start by looking at some very ordinary uses of the verb "to get".
So, you could "get wet". If you're out in the rain: "Aw, I got wet in the rain." So: "got", past tense. Or
you can say: "Don't get wet. It's going to rain." So: "to get wet". "To get thirsty".
If you haven't had a drink for a long time, you get thirsty, you need a drink.
"To get annoyed", you can get annoyed, angry about something or about someone, the way somebody
You can get... "Get tired". If you've been working all day, you get really tired late
at night and you need to go to bed. You can "get drunk", which means drinking a lot of
alcohol so that you're sort of reeling around, and maybe falling on the floor. Not a good
idea. So, you can "get drunk". Or you can say to somebody who's going to a party:
"Don't get drunk." Okay? "You'll feel terrible the next day. Don't get drunk." So: "drunk", it's
always to do with alcohol. You can say: "I have drunk a class of water." That's just
the past tense of "to drink", but in this sense, it's to do with alcohol. Okay, you
can "get married". Well, you can "get engaged", "get married", "get divorced", all of those
for "get". Use "get". Okay? You can "get the flu" or "a cold", when you're sneezing and
you're feeling really ill, the flu.
You can "get the sack", which means losing your job. It's a colloquial expression that
means to lose your job: "the sack". A sack is like a... Something, a container, a sack
made of cloth, usually, or plastic, you can have a plastic sack. But the... It's just
an expression for losing your job. I think you're given a bag with all your belongings
in to take away with you so that you don't leave all your stuff in a drawer somewhere
in the office where you don't work anymore, so that may be the reason. "To get the sack".
And then, having gotten the sack, you can "get a new job", where hopefully things will
go better. "To get a new job". And "to get ready", to get ready, put some nice clothes
on to go out to a party. Get ready to go to work, get ready to do something. Okay. So,
that's all very, very simple uses of the verb "to get".
Right, so now let's have a look at some imperatives, which means telling people what to do or what
not to do sometimes. They're like orders: "Do this, do that." Okay? So, and some can
be quite rude, so you have to be careful how you use them because telling people what to
do isn't always very nice. So, if you say to someone: "Get out!" that is very strong.
If you ask them: "Get out". If someone walked in here now, I might say... Well, I wouldn't,
but I could say: "Get out. We're filming."
But I would probably say: "Oh. Do you mind? We're filming at the moment, so please, would you mind leaving the room?"
would say: "Get out! We're filming." So: "Get out!"
"Get in", maybe your friend is... Has arrived with the car, ready to go on a trip, and she's
waiting for you to get into the car as well, and she's in a hurry, so she might say:
"Get in, get in, we're ready to go. We don't want to be late. Get in!"
"Get off", so again, in the car: "We need to get off now." We can go, we can get off.
Or if someone is standing on a chair, and you... They're spoiling the chair with their
dirty shoes, you can say: "Get off the chair. Get off the chair. You're making it dirty."
Okay? "Get up", if you're in bed in the morning, you have to get up, get dressed, get washed,
all of those things. Get ready to go out. "Get up". If you're on some very nice grass
that you're not supposed to be on, somebody might shout: "Get off the grass!" because
you could be spoiling it, and turning it into muddy tracks.
And this one is quite a nice one, because this... These words appear on a card. You
can buy a greetings card from a shop that says: "Get well soon!" If you're ill, if somebody
is ill either at home or in hospital, and you feel sorry for them, you want them to
get better, you can send a card that says: "Get well soon." Okay?
Right, then finally then, just a few other expressions using "get". "To get the credit"
for something. If somebody has done something really good, hopefully they get the credit
for doing it. People recognize that they have done something good. Sometimes somebody else
gets the credit for what you've done, and that is not very nice. They... Or they take
the credit. But "to get the credit" means you are recognized as the person who has done
something, usually something good.
"To get"... If something "gets on my nerves", the nerves of your nervous system, your feelings,
your sensations, your nerves, you know, how you feel, how you react. If I said... If there
was some music playing next door very loud and it had been going on for an hour, I would say:
"That music is really getting on my nerves. It's really annoying me. It's irritating me.
I don't like it. It's upsetting me." So: "to get on your nerves". Okay?
"To get through the day", sometimes the day that you're living is rather difficult, but
you keep going and you say: "I've got to get through the day." If I can just get through
the day, I'll be okay. Then I can go home, relax, watch some television, whatever. Just
get through the day. It's a sort of endurance test sometimes to get through. Right.
"To get over a bad experience". If you've had a bad experience, you have to recover
from it, and it might take a bit of time. So that's called "getting over something",
"to get over a bad experience".
Just an ordinary one, really: "to get the car going". Sometimes a car won't start very
easily. You turn the key in the ignition and the engine won't start, so:
"Oh, no, we're going on holiday. We've got to get the car going, otherwise we won't be able to go."
So that's usually something you have to do, "to get it going".
"To get something done", to do a job. "Get something done". "To get up", to get up in
the morning from bed or to stand up from a chair, maybe. Oh: "to get out of bed", right.
This is an interesting one: "to get into conversation with somebody". If you're learning English,
it's a good idea to... And there are English-speaking people around, it's a good idea to get into
conversation with an English-speaking person to give you some practice. And even if you
don't know them, you can just start chatting, and that's called "getting into conversation",
to start a conversation. Okay?
And then finally: "to get out of something" is when there's something you don't really
want to do. Maybe you've been invited to a friend's party, and you know you don't enjoy
the parties, unfortunately, at your friend's house, you don't like the other people who
come, so you have to think of a reason why you can't go and say:
"Oh, sorry, I'm doing something else that night." You get out of it, you find an excuse,
Okay, so that's just a few. There are lots more, but that's just a few uses of the verb "to get".
So, if you'd like to test yourself on these, there's a quiz on the website, www.engvid.com.
And if you'd like to subscribe to my YouTube channel, that would be great.