35 Useful Phrases for IELTS Speaking: GET

- Hello, today I'm gonna show you 35 useful phrases

with the verb, to get, let's do it.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from the Keith Speaking Academy

and the YouTube channel English Speaking Success,

here to help you speak better English,

give better answers and get a higher score

on IELTS speaking.

So some words in English are extremely common.

And we use them in many different ways.

For example, words like have, make, do, go, get.

They have a basic meaning,

but they also have lots of different collocations

with a wide range of meanings.

Now, getting these collocations right is critical

for you to improve your use of vocabulary

and so get a higher score in IELTS speaking.

So today we're gonna be looking at the verb to get

in 35 different ways, collocations and expressions.

In fact, we'll be looking at get plus nouns,

get plus adjectives,

and also some different useful advanced expressions

with get, brilliant let's do it.

Now of course, just knowing these collocations

is not enough.

You need to activate them so you can use them fluently.

Now you can practice on your own, that's fine.

But one of the best ways to practice

is also to practice with a teacher,

because then the teacher can give you feedback

and correct your mistakes.

Mistakes are great, let's be clear.

Mistakes are fantastic.

They are an essential step in your learning.

You just need a teacher or someone

who can correct your mistakes if you make them

as you make them when you make them

so that you can improve.

And I think one of the best places you can do that

is one of my favorite platforms

for learning English is Cambly.

And if you don't know Cambly,

it's an online platform

with native English speaking teachers,

where you can have one-to-one classes

across the internet with your teacher.

(air whooshing)

The great thing about Cambly

is that you can choose the teacher.

You can choose the time.

You could even choose the curriculum.

And then you can even go back

and watch the recorded class again

to review what you've learned, brilliant.

Now you may have guessed.

Cambly are sponsoring this video,

so a big thank you to Cambly.

But the good news for you is that there are discounts there.

So if you go for the 12 month plan,

investing in that long-term learning

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you get a 40% discount.

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40% discount on a 12 month plan.

If you want to just try out Cambly

to see if it's right for you,

you can also do a 15 minute lesson for free

if you're a new user.

You can check out the links below.

I'll remind you at the end of the video as well,

but for now it's time to get into the verb to get,

so let's get cracking.

Let's get going.

Let's get down to business.

(speaker laughing)

There's three phrases already there.

Great, let's do it.

So let's have a look first at get plus a noun.

Now, I think it was Shakespeare who said

"All the world's a stage."

Do you remember that?

All the world's a stage.

And he goes on to talk about the different stages of life,

from when you were like a little baby,

right up to the day that you die.

It's very philosophical, it's very interesting.

I'm gonna borrow that idea, thank you, William,

and talk to you about the different stages of life.

And what I want you to do

is to spot how many times I use the verb, get, with a noun.

Let's try. (air whooshing)

Yeah, no, I get what you're saying.

Yeah, absolutely.

But listen, now I've got it sorted.

Let me tell you what life is about, okay.

So yeah, right.

You go to school, you get an education.

And then if you're lucky you go to university,

you get a degree.

And then some people, a lot of people go and get a job.

Brilliant, you start working, you get a salary.

You're feeling good

but then you start making mistakes.

And then until the day you make a big mistake

and then you get the sack.

And then you're at home watching TV every morning,

every afternoon.

And you've got to get a grip.

You've got to get a life.

Stop watching reality TV and get on with things.

And then hopefully you'll get a job,

and then you'll carry on working until you're 65,

until you retire.

And then you start watching TV again

in the morning, in the afternoon

and in the evening for the rest of your life.

That's what life is all about, yeah.

(speaker laughing)

(air whooshing)

Let's have a look at the number of times I said, get.

How many did you spot?

Well, if you said six, that's not bad.

But if you said eight, that's even better.

And if you said nine, then you're spot on, well done.

Spot on, perfect.

Let me just go through them with you,

and we can have a look at the meanings.

So I began by saying, I get what you're saying.

I get what you're saying

just means I understand what you mean.

It's a nice little expression.

I get what you're saying.

Often followed by but.

I get what you're saying but...

And then you you like tell them something else.

We talked about get an education

when you go to school and go to college.

Get a degree is when you graduate

from university or from college.

And of course get a job, to find employment.

Notice a lot of these, you have the article a.

So it's get a, get a job, get a degree

or get a job, get a degree.

Slightly more American accent,

but you'll notice even I use that sometimes.

By the way some students do ask me,

is it okay if I mix kind of American pronunciation

and British pronunciation?

Yes is the quick answer, absolutely fine.

Don't worry about it.

A lot of people do.

Then we had get a salary which is to get your money

or to get a wage.

A salary as a monthly payment,

a wage is a weekly payment.

And then we had get the sack.

Not get a sack.

A sack is a bag. (siren ringing)

I mean, you get a bag when you go to the supermarket,

but you get the sack when you lose your job

because you worked badly.

It's like to get fired.

You get the sack, you lose your job.

And then get a grip,

to get controL of a difficult situation, get a grip.

And get a life.

Get a life is to stop doing the boring trivial things.

Do something interesting with your life.

So we often say get a life.

And also we have gets on with things

which means to continue with things,

continue doing things.

We need to get on with things.

Even though we've got COVID and lockdown,

we need to get on with things or get on with our work,

get on with our lives.

Great, nine expressions there

where we've got get plus a noun.

Let's move on.

Let's move on now and talk about get plus adjectives.

This is very common.

And by and large, it just means to become.

So when we say to get old it means to become old.

Or get angry, is to become angry.

The slight difference is

I think is that to become old is a little bit more formal,

and get old it's just slightly more informal, more spoken.

To get angry.

Of course you can say, yes, she became angry

but it does sound more formal.

I think she got angry,

It just it sounds more spoken.

Which is why this is great to use get

in your IELTS speaking 'cause it is

a little bit more colloquial spoken English.

So as I mentioned, get angry.

Always remember if you can to have that linking get angry.

We have many similar words here.

We can say, get angry, get upset, get annoyed,

get irritated.

I get irritated when I burn the dinner.

It doesn't happen a lot,

but when it does I get angry with myself of course.

We can say to get worried.

I get worried when the government tells me

there's nothing to worry about.

Get old, yeah, tell me about it, yeah.

He's getting old, he's getting on.

There's another expression means the same.

He's getting on means he's getting old.

We can say to get stuck and you can be stuck.

I mean to get stuck is when you physically cannot move,

but we also use it metaphorically.

So you can get stuck in a maths problem

or get stuck on a maths problem.

You can get stuck with your English learning.

You can get stuck at work.

You don't know what to do next.

So all of these have more metaphorical meanings,

to get stuck.

Good, we can say to get ready

you need to get ready to go out.

You need to get ready for your IELTS test.

Get interesting, this is getting interesting.

This film at the start was really slow.

It was painfully slow

but now it's starting to get interesting.

So all of these get plus the adjective

basically is to become.

There are lots of things you can say,

you can be quite creative.

But these ones I think are the most commonly used ones,

so they're worth picking up.

Great, let's move on.

Lovely, now we're gonna move on

and look at some useful and advanced expressions

with get.

We're gonna do this by listening to my friend Stan,

who's gonna talk to us about COVID

and how it's impacted him.

Again, I want you to spot how many times

you can hear the word get

and what are the different expressions

that are used with get.

Are you ready?

If you're not ready, then you better get ready,

we're about to begin.

(air whooshing)

- Yo how is it going my friend.

Good, pleased to hear that.

So yo COVID, yeah.

I get the impression that the government

doesn't really know what it's doing with COVID.

I mean, they've been saying we will all get vaccinated

but we seem to be getting nowhere.

And now with these new variants,

it seems to me that we are getting into trouble again.

Of course the lockdowns help.

Yeah, well they help control the spread of the virus.

But they don't really help the economy

or physical and mental health.

I think we're all watching too much TV, Netflix,

getting out of shape.

Many of us are stuck at home

and we just got into a rut.

We're doing the same things day after day.

I think it's all getting out of hand.

We need the government to get a grip,

to get back on track, to get the vaccines rolled out.

Yeah, so dear Mr. President,

I hope you get the message beach, yo.

(air whooshing)

- Right, thank you very much, Stan.

So let's have a look.

How many times did he say get.

Well, there were actually 10 expressions with get,

although one of them we've seen earlier in the video.

But he actually said get 11 times

because one of them was repeated.

So how did you get on.

It's everywhere, the word get like a ghost coming in.

So let's have a look.

It begins or Stan began with,

I get the impression which is a lovely expression.

Meaning it seems to me.

I get the impression you're not very happy.

I get the impression that this situation is very serious.

It seems to me, lovely expression.

Then we had to get vaccinated.

Of course, is to receive the vaccine talking about COVID.

To get nowhere is to make no progress.

So I'm trying to learn...

I don't know, I'm trying to learn Russian

but I'm getting nowhere.

I'm making no progress.

I often feel I'm getting nowhere with this, good.

Get into trouble was the next one,

which is obviously to find yourself

with problems or in trouble.

So the government is getting into trouble.

And listen to that cadence, listen to the...

(speaker humming)

The government is getting into trouble.

Can you say that?

The government is getting into trouble.

It's a real...

(speaker humming)

If you can pick up that intonation, it'd be really nice.

We had them to get out of shape.

People are sat at home watching TV

and they get out of shape.

Get out of shape, can you say.

Get out of shape.

Yeah, and it means, well instead of being slim,

you're becoming fat.

You're becoming a different shape a round shape.

So basically you're becoming unfit.

You're not as healthy and as fit as you should be.

To get out of shape or get out of shape.

And then we had get into a rut,

which is to be trapped in a boring routine.

If you're doing the same thing every day,

then you're in a rut and you can get into a rut.

You become inside that situation where you're not happy.

You're sad, you're depressed maybe.

Many people during their life after working for 20 years,

they feel that they have got into a rut.

They're just doing the same thing every day.

Commuting, getting up, breakfast, working, sleeping,

and so you feel you've got into a rut, great expression.

Next one, get out of hand is to become out of control.

So this situation is getting out of hand.

COVID is getting out of hand,

although it's getting a bit better I feel.

Now, we also had get a grip.

So to grip is to hold, to control,

to take control of something.

Get a grip, which we saw at the beginning of the video.

Get back on track is idiomatic.

It doesn't mean you get back on the track,

like the railway literally.

But it means metaphorically to return

to your original plan or the original direction.

So we can say that the government

is getting back on track with their plans.

I've been studying but I got distracted,

but now I'm back on track studying.

And finally to get the message.

Dear Mr. President, are you getting the message?

Do you understand what I am saying or what I mean?

And if you get the message,

then it's to understand what someone means.

I hope you get the message.

That's it, great.

Moving on.

(air whooshing)

So a final word.

Now, you know I think, that listening

to a few fancy words and phrases is not going to be enough

for you to get a band seven or above, why?

Because there's a difference between knowledge and knowing.

Knowledge is the information you about something.

Knowledge about a word for example, or a phrase.

So for example, get plus an adjective,

get angry means to become angry, that's knowledge.

Knowing is being able to use that knowledge.

So knowing is being able to use get angry in a sentence.

So if I have knowing, I can say.

Oh, my wife got so angry because I burned the dinner.

It's true.

That's knowing.

There's a big difference between knowledge and knowing.

And I think you should spend as much time

on your knowing as you do on your knowledge.

Otherwise, you'll just become a walking dictionary

who cannot communicate with anybody,

and you need to be able to communicate

in order to do well in IELTS speaking.

So I think one of the great places

that you can learn that knowing is of course

through Cambly.

Cambly, the online platform where

you've got native English speakers

and you can practice with them and activate the language,

and build up your knowing, not just knowledge.

Let me remind you of the discount

that there are different plans

for different number of months in Cambly.

But if you go for the 12 month plan,

then you get a discount of 40%.

All you need to do is use the promo code.

That's Keith-yt for YouTube I think.

Keith-yt, you can see it on the screen.

The links are down below underneath the video.

You can go and click on there

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See if it's something you want to carry on with.

I think it might be 'cause it's great practice

to activate your language.

Also do notice that Cambly have quite

a few pre-prepared courses that you can follow

and also use for your classes as well with your teacher,

including courses on IELTS.

So go and check them out.

Great, that's it from me for today.

Thank you so much for watching.

It's been a pleasure being with you.

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In the meantime stay safe, take care of yourself,

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Bye-bye

(upbeat music)