Casual English Booster! 20 Passive “GET” Phrases

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Put that down there.

Here we go.

There we go.

Whew.

Ready to go.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

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That bottle, if you can still hear it, it's

suffering the after effects of my fast drinking.

Okay.

So, today's lesson is about the "get" passive.

This is a grammar lesson.

It's a speaking lesson because in casual situations,

often we can replace the verb "be" with the

verb "get".

So, I want to do two things with this video, and I want to teach you two things.

One, the common scenarios in which we can replace the verb "be" with the verb "get",

and two, I want to give you, like, 20 useful phrases that you can use with "get".

So, you have a bank of vocabulary by the end of this video.

So, to begin, I have two sentences.

I can say in the passive, "I was promoted", like at my job.

I can also say, "I got promoted".

"Got" in this situation is just a more casual way to say "I was".

Okay?

So, "get" is casual.

Very common in speech when you are looking

at the types of sentences that we are looking

at today.

Now, this is a positive thing, right?

Like, "I got promoted."

Great.

"They gave me a new position."

What's the active form of this, by the way?

Hmm.

Yeah.

It's like, "They promoted me", "I got promoted

by them", or "by the company", or "by my boss".

Now, this is positive.

However, often we use the "get" passive when

the situation is unpleasant, something that's

not fun, something that does not feel good.

So, for example, "get stopped".

No one likes getting stopped by the police.

So, here, "We got stopped for speeding."

"Speeding" means driving too fast, driving over the speed limit.

So, "We got stopped for speeding."

Can you repeat that with me?

Try it.

"We got stopped for speeding."

Good.

Okay.

So, not a pleasant experience.

Even less pleasant is "getting arrested".

So, here, "get arrested".

"Did he get arrested?"

By the police.

All right?

So, when you are arrested, usually the police,

they put the handcuffs on you, they put you

inside the car, and they take you away.

This is what movies have told me, anyway.

Okay.

I don't think I've ever seen someone get arrested in person.

Have you?

So, let's practice this.

"Did he get arrested?"

Good.

Next, "get fired".

So, here, "Oh, I got promoted."

Great.

"Get fired" is like the polar opposite.

"Get fired" means you lost your job because the company released you from your job.

They kicked you out.

This is another phrasal verb here, "kick out".

So, they kicked you out, they fired you.

The passive is "get fired".

Very common to use "get fired" for the passive form.

So, question, you repeat this one after me.

"Why did you get fired?"

Yeah, what reason?

What did you do to get fired?

Okay, next, "get hit".

No one likes to get hit, right, by anything.

You can get hit by many things.

So, this is a very tragic situation.

Many of us have probably experienced this,

well, I say experienced, maybe not yourself,

but you know someone who has had this experience.

Repeat after me.

"He got hit by a car."

Okay, good.

Now, you will notice a pattern so far with

these uses of "get", such as "we got stopped",

"did he get arrested?", "why did you get fired?", "he got hit by a car".

A lot of them, all of them, are actually being used in the past simple.

So, we often use the "get" passive in the past simple.

It is possible in other tenses, we will see it in other tenses, but very, very commonly

we use the "get" passive with the past simple.

All right, next, "get stung".

So, wasps sting you, like you can get stung by an insect, just like here.

Repeat after me.

"I got stung by a wasp."

Yeah, have you ever got stung by a wasp?

I have.

I was...

It was actually...

There was a wasp nest underneath my recycle bin.

It was a small nest, and it was recycling

day, and I have this big blue bin, and I have

to put my hands under the bin to kind of pull it.

And I put my hands under, and immediately I got stung by a wasp, and I saw...

I stepped away, and I saw five wasps just

suddenly appear, and I looked under, and there

was a small nest, a small wasp's nest under my recycle bin.

Okay, so have you ever got stung by a wasp?

I don't know.

You tell me in the comments.

It's not a pleasant experience.

Next, "get robbed".

So, repeat after me.

"Our house got robbed."

Okay.

Now, if you're wondering, what does it mean to get robbed?

This means someone stole something from you or from a place, so a car can get robbed,

like someone can break into your car and take some money that they see or something.

Your house can get robbed.

A bank can get robbed.

A person can get robbed as well if they take money.

Someone takes money from you, you can get robbed.

Okay, next we have "get stolen".

So, people and places get robbed, objects get stolen.

So, repeat after me.

"Has your bike ever got stolen?"

Okay, I have a short story about this, too.

When I was a kid, my bike got stolen two times.

One of them, I got my bike back, my neighbour

found it, and the second one, I never got

my bike back.

Both times, I left my bike outside the store

and I was inside the store just getting candy.

One time, I was playing Street Fighter 2, the arcade game, and I was looking outside

the window, and I could see that there was

somebody just looking in and looking a little

strange, but I thought, "Ah, I'm just going

to focus on Street Fighter 2", and yeah, ten

minutes later, I walked outside, my bike was gone, my bike got stolen.

Sad times.

But I learned a lesson that day.

I'm not very good at Street Fighter 2 at the arcades.

That's the lesson I learned.

Okay, I'm a Ryu player, by the way.

It's very vanilla, I know.

Next, we have "get hacked".

Get hacked.

So, of course, websites can get hacked.

Your phone can get hacked by somebody.

Somebody enters it through less than legal means.

So, repeat after me, "Our website is getting hacked."

Yeah, so it's happening now.

It's like, "Oh, no, there's strange things happening on the website.

Our website is getting hacked."

So, these are all unpleasant things, right?

So, no one wants to get stopped by the police,

get arrested by the police, get fired by your

company, get hit by a car or a van.

All negative things.

However, it is possible to use the "get passive"

with neutral situations or positive situations

as well.

So, for example, "get offered".

Repeat after me, "I got offered the job."

Good?

Yeah, so they offered me the job, right?

I went for a job interview, and you can say, "They offered me the job.

Yay.

I will get the job."

But you can also say, "I got offered the job by them."

Right?

Like, "I got offered the job.

I'm so excited."

Next, just like at the beginning, "get promoted".

Repeat after me, "You should get promoted."

You work very hard in this case, and in my

opinion, you should get promoted, or you should

get a promotion as well, you can say.

Next, "get praised".

If you are praised, this means people say positive things about you, usually because

of something you have done, a job that you did, or an action that you took.

So, "She got praised for her efforts" is the

sentence here, and I would like you to repeat

this after me.

So, repeat after me, "She got praised for her efforts."

Great.

So, people said, "Good job.

That was fantastic."

So, people gave her praise, "She got praised for her efforts."

Similar to getting praised, not exactly, but in

the same realm or the same area, "get thanked".

So, "I hope you get thanked for this."

Right?

So, it's like, "I hope", they say thank you.

You did something you did not have to do, it was very positive, it helped people.

Repeat after me, "I hope you get thanked for this."

Okay, perfect.

Sometimes, better than getting thanked is

getting paid, because now you have a physical

version of people saying thanks.

So, let me ask you to repeat this after me, "Are you getting paid for this?"

Very good.

Right?

So, are you receiving financial remuneration?

Is it remuneration or renumeration?

I think it's remuneration, but it's spelled with an "m".

I have never been good at saying that word.

So, yes, are you getting paid for this?

Are they paying you?

Is someone paying you for this?

Next, we have "get told".

So, if you receive information, you can say,

repeat after me, "We got told to leave."

Yeah, so the people at the club said you have to leave.

So, in this case, we got told to leave, like

me and my friends, my friends and I got told

to leave.

All right, next we have "get sent".

So, if someone sends you something, like a

letter, a notice, then you get sent this thing.

So, repeat after me, "She got sent a letter."

Yeah, they sent her a letter, she got sent a letter about, you know, whatever she did.

Maybe it was something bad, maybe it was something good.

Next, similar to "getting hacked", but it's

more neutral, like "to get deleted", the file

got deleted, for example.

But here, repeat after me, we'll use the future, "The file will get deleted."

Okay, good.

So, yeah, if you don't do anything by next week, we will delete this file or the file

will get deleted.

Okay, perfect.

And finally, you can use the "get" passive with reflexive pronouns.

Now, this means that you are partly responsible

for the action, and it can be positive, it

can be negative.

It's often negative, though.

So, let's look at some of these sentences.

Now, what is a reflexive pronoun?

"Herself", "myself", "himself", "themselves",

"ourselves", these are reflexive pronouns,

they bounce back to the subject.

So, here, repeat after me, "She got herself fired."

"She got herself fired."

In this case, she did something that clearly made it clear...

Clearly made it clear, yeah, that's redundant,

but that made it clear that she was responsible

for her losing her job.

Right?

She was responsible for losing her job.

So, she got herself fired, you know, she did

something terrible, she stole money from the

company.

She stole money.

So, clearly, she is responsible.

She got herself fired.

Next, repeat after me, first, "Careful", good, "You're going to get yourself hurt."

Yeah, this means like, hey, be careful or you will hurt yourself.

Right?

So, you can say this to children who are playing

at the park, maybe, and say, "Be careful,

you're going to get yourself hurt."

Right?

You're going to hurt yourself if you're not careful.

And then finally, repeat after me, "He got himself burned."

Yeah, so he left a lot of things on on the...

On the stove, maybe he was cooking, and it's his fault.

Right?

It's like he wasn't paying attention and he

burned his hand, so you can say, "He got himself

burned."

I don't know why he wasn't paying attention, but this is what happened.

Okay.

So, as you can see, you can use the "get" passive in a variety of situations.

Often they are negative.

We have a lot of negative situations.

However, there are some positive situations

that you can use with the "get" passive, and

you have learned today that you can use it

with reflexive pronouns to show responsibility

or that someone had a role or an important part to play in something happening.

If you would like to test your understanding

of the "get" passive even more, as always,

you can check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

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