Basic English Vocabulary - GET

Hi again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Nice to be here again. Today's lesson

is going to be very short and sweet, but to the point. Some of you have asked me about

this word: "get" -- because "get" has many different uses and some of you are a little

bit confused by how it's used with past participle and some other words very specifically. So

I'm not going to explain all the meanings of "get" today, I'm just going to focus on

two uses of "get". But if you want more explanation and other uses, please check your dictionary

because there are many ways to use the word "get".

Today's issue is specifically the past participle. So again, different ways of using the past

participle: "punished", so "to punish", past tense: "punished", past participle: "punished".

"Hit", also irregular verb but it's "hit", past is "hit", past participle: "hit".

"Beat", "to beat", "beat", "beaten". And again, "ed", regular verbs.

So let's start with this: what does it mean to get punished, to get hit, get beaten, get

awarded when we use "get" with a past participle in this way? Basically it means to be subjected to.

A simpler way to understand this is basically to receive an action. Okay? So when somebody

gets punished, it means that someone else punishes them. It is used as a passive, but

many people use "get" instead of "be". The meaning is basically the same thing. "I did

something bad. I was punished.", "I did something bad. I got punished." The meaning is exactly

the same. This of course will go to the past tense, in the past. "I will get punished."

Future: "will get". That goes, the "get" goes with a tense, the past participle stays what

it is because it is a passive voice. Now, you may ask me: why should I use "get"

instead of "be"? There's no reason. You can use either one. Okay? "I got hit by the ball

accidently", means I received that action; the ball hit me. Again, same thing: "I was

hit by a ball.", "The boy got beaten by his competitor.", "The boy was beaten by his competitor."

Again, it's just a choice. "Get punished" versus "Be punished" is just more casual,

"get". "Get" is more casual than "be", more informal if you want to say it that way. And

again, with all of these. Now here, you're going to look at different

verbs. "Get started", okay? So we set up all the class, we're ready to start and I say:

"Okay, let's get started." What does that mean? It basically means to do. So instead

of saying "get started", I could say: "start". "Let's get started.", "Let's start." Exactly

the same way. Again, very informal way of saying it. I don't really know why it became

this way. Sometimes the English language, it changes, people start saying something,

other people start saying the same thing, it spreads and spreads, and of course, soon

enough everyone accepts it and it becomes a part of the language.

"Get going", okay? If we're going to be on time like we're making a plan to go for a

trip. So I say, "Okay, if we're going to be on time, we should get going." Basically means

we should go. It has more of a feeling of getting something, starting the action -- whatever

the action may be. Now here, you notice I have two adjectives.

"Get angry". When I drive a car - I'm a very calm person -, but when I drive, I get angry

very quickly because there're so many bad drivers around me. I'm the best driver in

this city, everybody else is a bad driver so I get very angry all the time. But, the

more I speak to you, the more hungry I get. I'm getting hungry right now just thinking

about food. What does this mean? This basically means "become". "I'm getting hungry" -- I'm

becoming hungry. "I got hungry last night so I went to eat a pizza." -- I became hungry

so I went to eat a pizza. Okay? Again, very, very informal, very casual. You usually wouldn't

see this too much in written English, but in spoken English you will hear these all

the time. It's very common, very accepted, very casual, very okay. Okay? So don't worry

about using any of these. Just understand that usually "get" replaces

"be" and here it replaces "become" or just we... Actually I'll give you another word

here: "colloquial", I hope I'm spelling this correctly. This is a "q", it's not a very

pretty "q" but... colloquial language means language of the people; street language. So

colloquial language uses all kinds of slang. It used to be slang, then it became accepted

by many people, then we start calling it "colloquial language". So it's okay; don't write with

it so much. But, if you want to see more examples of sentences

using both of these or all of these - excuse me -, I should say all of these types of sentences,

go to www.engvid.com. There's a quiz there you can fill out. And also, don't forget to

subscribe to my YouTube channel, and I'll see you again really soon. Bye.