Get & Become | English Vocabulary Lesson

Welcome everyone, let's get started with today's  presentation, which is about a question Elke has  

sent us, and it's a very good question. It's about  the two verbs 'become' and 'get', because they  

can get confused with each other very easily. The  question is: how to use become and get correctly?  

Let's have a look at what I have prepared for you.  Right, the main thing we use these verbs for are  

when we want to show a change of state. So, that's  why very often after the verbs 'get' and 'become',  

you have an adjective. And in this situation, you  can use them interchangeably most of the time. So,  

you can say: he gets tired or he becomes tired  easily. I got or I became angry last night. These  

stories are getting interesting or these stories  are becoming interesting. Or, I'm sure this road  

will get busier or this road will become busier.  So, as you can see you can use them for regular  

adjectives 'tired', 'angry', 'interesting', and  also for comparative adjectives like 'busier' is  

the example we have here. So, so far so good!  But of course with English, there are always  

exceptions and things to remember. The first thing  that I need to mention to you here is there are  

some expressions, some adjectives, that are only  possible with 'get'. For example, we cannot say:  

become married. We have to say: get married, or  get dressed, get fired, get caught. Now, if you  

look at these adjectives 'married', 'dressed',  'fired', 'caught', you notice that they are all  

past participle adjectives. Just to remind you,  a past participle adjectives comes from the past  

participle of the verb. So, we have marry -  married - married. Or catch - caught caught.  

This is the third part that becomes, what we call,  a participle adjective. So with these adjectives,  

you should only use 'get'. It is it's very strange  to say like: I became married last year. Only  

'get'. Right, now of course there is always a  little further exception, and I could find one  

with the word 'ready'. Although with the adjective  'ready' although it is not a participle adjective,  

don't say: become ready. Always say: get ready.  Okay, so so far this is how we use 'get' and  

'become' with adjectives. So really, if you think  oh how am I going to remember or decide as I'm  

speaking this is a participle adjective this is  not? Just use 'get', because it always works. So,  

you can more or less drop 'become' to show  a change of state. Okay, now when do we use  

'become' and not 'get'? That's the other side of  the coin, and that is coming up in the next slide.  

That is when we follow with a noun. There's a noun  involved in what we say after become. For example  

'a nurse'. You can never say: I got a nurse 5  years ago. It's always I become or I became,  

in this case, a nurse five years ago. There  is a noun. There is no change of state. There  

is only maybe a change of status we can say.  Or: she has become a competent leader. Now,  

here you notice that we have an adjective  'competent' but it's part of the noun phrase:  

a competent leader. Leader is the one that decides  you should use 'become'. We can also have plural  

nouns like: these are becoming interesting  stories. Again, we have the word 'stories',  

we have a noun. So, it's not the adjective that  works here, it's the noun. And the last example,  

again we have here a comparative adjective like we  had before 'busier'. But now, it's talking about  

the road. We have a noun in the sentence, again  'get' doesn't work. You have to say: I'm sure this  

will become a busier road. Okay, so far so good I  hope. And of course, one last thing to mention is  

that the verb 'get' also has a second very common  meaning, which is to receive. And obviously,  

in that case we do not use 'become'. I can't say:  I became a message. So: I got a message from Joe.  

And: what did you get for your birthday. I know  Elke has asked this question, because for some  

Germanic language speakers, 'become' is 'receive'  if they translate directly become means receive.  

For the rest of us, this doesn't pose a problem.  And of course, the last thing I'd like to mention  

is that the verb 'get' as you know is used in many  many phrasal verbs and expressions. For example:  

get on get off a plane or any public transport.  A good expression: get off to a good start,  

we use that a lot. Another very common expression:  get down to business or get over an illness. So,  

you see the verb 'get' in many many different  contexts. 'Become' never creates a phrasal verb,  

and its usage is a lot less. If I recap, if you  have a noun like become a nurse, become a mother,  

etc. that's where you can limit your usage to.  And for change of state just use 'get'. I think  

that facilitates. Okay, that's the end of the  presentation. I hope you liked it, and that there  

is some clarity now about the difference of usage  between 'get' and 'become'. I hope you've enjoyed  

this lesson. For more on this topic, click here.  Remember to also check out my complete online  

course, and don't forget to like and subscribe.  Thank you for watching, and happy studies!