Learn 15 Phrasal Verbs with 'GET' in context: get by, get across, get through... (+ Free PDF & Quiz)

- Hello everyone, and welcome back

to English with Lucy.

I've got a very long awaited video for you.

A video that many of you (chuckling)

have waited a very long time for.

Around four years ago,

I promised that if enough of you

requested this video, I'd make it.

Let me just check exactly when I said that.

Oh God, I've just had to watch an advert

on my own video,

I hope (chuckling) that that's not illegal.

The 16th of June, 2016.

So four and a bit years later,

here I am with Get Phrasal Verbs.

Phrasal verbs are so annoying to learn.

They're really quite difficult for many students.

But I think that the absolute best way to learn them

is through context.

So I'm going to teach them to you

through a true story.

A story about me. (chuckling)

I will be talking to you about my experience

learning another language, Spanish,

and how I went from being a student,

doing the bare minimum,

and that means the least possible amount of work

that I could do,

to what I consider to be fluent

in my second language.

So hopefully you might find this motivating,

and at the very least,

you'll learn lots

of get phrasal verbs in context.

Before we get started,

I would just like to thank the sponsor

of today's video.

It is Sensations English.

Sensations English is a fantastic new learning tool.

They create lessons based on current news videos.

And each lesson comes in five different levels,

from beginner, to advanced.

First, you can choose or test

your current English level.

Then, you read, watch, or listen

to any of the news articles or videos

that take your fancy.

There are lots of different categories,

from funny, entertainment news,

to more serious news.

You can choose your level,

from beginner to advanced,

and you can play around with this feature

to see the highest level

that you're comfortable with.

It's really great

to test your current limits and ability.

After you've done that,

you can practise your skills by playing games.

There are all sorts of games that you can use

to test your knowledge,

from pronunciation, to grammar.

Then, you can use the study tools

to further your learning.

These are all available at all five levels.

You can try all of this out for free today,

for seven days,

or, you can subscribe straight away,

to gain access to over 300 video lessons,

at all different levels.

At the moment,

you can get 50% off the standard price.

And, as a special offer for my students,

Sensations English are offering

an extra month free,

if you take out a three month subscription,

or two months free,

if you take out a six month subscription.

All of the information you need,

along with the link to sign up,

is in the description box down below.

The feedback so far has been amazing,

so please let me know how you find it.

Also, don't forget to download the PDF,

the free PDF, for this lesson.

I've got the full story there,

all of the get phrasal verbs,

their definitions, and some extra examples.

Click on the link

in the description box for that.

All you have to do is sign up

to my mailing list,

and it'll come straight to your inbox.

Right, let's get started with the story

and the lesson.

So it's going to work like this.

I'm going to read out

a little section of my story.

Then we'll pick out the get phrasal verb,

and we'll look at the definition.

For a long time,

I got away with doing the bare minimum

at school, and my Spanish really suffered.

I lived in a tiny village

with no public transport.

I wanted to get away,

and explore another culture.

Okay, let's look at this first phrasal verb.

I've actually used it twice,

but it means different things,

depending on the context.

It is to get away.

So in the first instance,

I say that I got away with doing something.

The bare minimum.

The bare minimum is very, very little,

the least amount possible.

Now in this context, get away means to succeed

in avoiding punishment for something,

or similarly, to do something successfully,

even though it's not the best way to do it.

So I would say in this context,

it means the latter.

So this means

that I was still passing at school,

but I was working very, very little.

I was doing the absolute minimum.

In the second sentence,

I wanted to get away, and explore.

To get away, in this case,

means to leave, or to escape.

And this is true.

I grew up in a tiny, weeny village,

and we didn't have any public transport,

and obviously, I couldn't drive.

I was 16 in the time of this story.

And I felt that learning another language

was my ticket out of that village.

It was a way to leave and go somewhere else.

I knew that if I wanted to get ahead,

I had to do more

than just attend my school classes.

I explained my predicament to my parents,

and they got behind me.

They told me that if I wanted to go abroad,

I had to get out, and find a job.

Okay, so we've got three phrasal verbs

with get there.

Let's look at the first one.

To get ahead, to get ahead.

This means to become successful

in one's life or career.

I wasn't going to get ahead

by doing the bare minimum.

So I knew I had to do something more.

Then we have to get behind.

And although this sounds negative,

because it's behind,

it's actually really positive.

To get behind something,

or to get behind someone,

is to support something or someone.

So my parents really supported me.

We often use to get behind an idea,

or something, or a project.

I think they'll get behind that project,

I think they'll really support it.

Then we have the final one.

To get out, which means to leave,

and in this case, the house.

My parents wanted me to leave the house,

and find a job,

so that I could fund my own travels.

That's a decision that my parents made,

that I have always thought was really good.

Whenever we wanted something,

we had to find a way ourselves.

They could probably have afforded

to pay for me to go to Spain,

but they told me that I had to find a job

and do it myself.

And I think that's great.

Okay, next part of the story.

I got onto it straight away,

and found a job in the local pub.

I spoke about this in a previous video,

my job at the pub.

In that video,

I explained lots of different ways

to say said.

Link down below.

Once I'd saved enough money,

I called a language academy in Seville, Spain.

I got through to the manager, and I booked

a week long residential language course.

When I arrived in Seville,

I met all of my classmates,

and we got on really well.

I found that I could get by

with the little Spanish I knew.

Okay, so let's start with to get onto something.

In this context,

it means to start to do,

or to start to deal with something.

So if you have a problem,

or a task ahead of you,

you can say, right, I'll get onto it,

I'll start to deal with it.

Next, we have to get through,

which means to make a successful telephone call.

If you called somebody, but they didn't pick up,

you can say, oh, I couldn't get through to him.

Now, if I can remember correctly,

at this time, I was 16 to 17.

And I think I lied to get onto an adult course.

I don't recommend doing that,

but I remember thinking,

I don't want to be treated like a child.

I just want to do the adult course,

I feel like an adult, I'm 16, 17. (laughing)

And the next one, to get on with.

You might also hear to get along with.

I would probably be more inclined

to say to get on with,

because to get along with

requires slightly more effort. (chuckling)

And the last one, to get by, to get by.

This means to manage, with difficulty,

to live, or to accomplish something.

So in this situation,

I was managing to communicate,

with difficulty, but I accomplished it.

You might hear people talking about money

with get by.

I don't earn much, but I get by,

I manage to live.

Okay, next part of this story.

As I got older,

I found that getting a couple of drinks down me

made me more confident when speaking.

I made lots of Spanish friends,

and I couldn't get over how much I improved

by speaking to them on WhatsApp each day.

It felt good when I was able

to get my thoughts and feelings across.

So that first one, to get down,

this means to swallow.

So to get a couple of drinks down you

is to swallow a couple of drinks.

Yes, I'm in no way promoting drinking alcohol

as a method of learning Spanish, or English,

or any other language.

But that is definitely something

I noticed, when I was old enough to drink.

Suddenly, (chuckling) I felt fluent.

Then we have to get over.

And this has various meanings,

like most of these phrasal verbs.

In this instance,

it means to accept, or to come to terms with.

So we often use it to talk

about a past relationship.

It took me two years to get over him,

to kind of recover from the pain,

or to accept and to come to terms

with the breakup.

In this case,

I'm saying I was shocked or surprised,

I couldn't get over it.

I couldn't recover from my shock.

I was so surprised

at how much I improved

by talking to them on WhatsApp.

And this was true.

Having a couple of friends

that I could send messages to each day was amazing,

especially when voice messages became popular.

And the last one,

you might not have noticed the preposition,

or the particle here,

because it's at the end of the sentence.

To get my thoughts and feelings across.

This phrasal verb is separable,

some of them are inseparable,

like to take off.

You can't take a plane off.

It's always the plane takes off.

But this one can be separated.

And to get across, or to get something across,

is to make somebody understand something.

I'm not sure if I've got that across.

I'm not sure if I've made you understand that.

Final part of the story,

I really got into Spanish TV shows,

and this helped a lot.

I started working as much as I could,

and every time I got off work,

I counted my money,

to see if I could afford another trip to Spain.

I managed to go twice more,

and each time I got back,

I tried to plan another trip.

I actually had a Spanish boyfriend,

but we broke up

and got back together a few times. (laughing)

Seville has an extremely special place

in my heart.

I always try to go back there.

And I get together with all of my old friends,

and we reminisce.

Let's look at these last few, then.

I said, I got into TV shows.

If you get into something,

it means you become interested in it.

When I was younger, I got into heavy metal,

I became very interested in heavy metal.

I got into watching Spanish TV shows,

but they were not high quality ones,

they were reality TV shows. (laughing)

Probably not fantastic for language learning,

but I learnt a lot from them. (laughing)

(sighing)

(speaking Spanish)

Then we have to get off.

Obviously, in some cases,

this can mean to alight.

So to get off a train, to get off a plane.

Remember, if you have to crouch down

and make your body small, for example,

a car or a taxi,

you get out of a car,

you get out of a taxi.

In, out, car, taxi.

On, off, train, bus, plane.

In this case, it means to finish work,

to leave work.

I get off in five minutes.

I leave work in five minutes.

We also have to get back,

but this has two meanings.

The first one, to get back from a trip,

to return, to arrive home from a trip.

And the second one,

to get back with someone,

or to get back together.

This means to restart

a previously ended relationship.

So we break up, we get back together.

Did she get back with him?

Has she started their relationship again?

And this is true.

It's another thing

that really, really (chuckling) helped my Spanish,

getting a Spanish boyfriend.

Again, not something I recommend

as a language learning tool,

but I think it just shows

how powerful it can be to meet and mingle

with people who speak that language.

We have the last one, to get together,

which means to meet socially.

You can now have a get together,

as a noun, which is a social meeting.

I'm having a little get together at mine tonight.

Or, shall we get together this weekend?

Shall we meet up, socially, this weekend?

Get together sounds much better.

Again, don't forget to download the free PDF

for this lesson.

I've got the full transcript,

and story, all of the get phrasal verbs,

the vocabulary, with their definitions,

and some extra examples as well.

Just click on the link

in the description box for that.

And you just have to sign in with your email address,

and it will be sent straight to you.

Don't forget to check out Sensations English.

All of the information

is in the description box as well.

And don't forget to connect

with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Facebook, my Instagram,

and my email list.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(upbeat electronic music)