Learn 30 Phrasal Verbs with GET in context | To get you sound like a NATIVE speaker

Hi there, this is Harry, welcome back  to advanced English lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a  better understanding of the English  

language. If you're trying to improve your  general English or conversational English,  

perhaps you're preparing for a proficiency  exam or indeed, you might even be preparing  

for a job interview in English, we're here  to help you. So any problems that you have,  

let us know what they are, we can include them in  some of the lessons that will come on from this.

Now, this particular lesson is an advanced  English lesson. And it's all about phrasal  

verbs using the verb get. So in fact, I've  got 30 of them in the list. Yes, 30. So I'm  

going to be exhausted, but yet by the end of  this, so hopefully, you and I are still awake.

So keep watching. There's lots of interesting  phrasal verbs. And what I'm going to do is I'm  

going to tell you the meaning, explain  it to you. And then give you a simple  

example that you'll be able to use. Okay,  so advanced English lessons phrasal verbs  

using the verb get. So I said, I've got  30, let's go through them one at a time.

So the first one is to get about. Now, this one  just to warn you is usually only used by British  

native speakers not used by Americans. So to get  about and get about means to travel around, or go  

from A to B, particularly when you're on holiday.  So for example, if you're in London, the best way  

to get about in London, is to get an Oyster card.  And this Oyster card allows you to travel on the  

underground, the buses, so you can get about quite  easily. And we can also say to somebody generally,  

Oh, you get about a lot, don't you? So you come  and you tell your friends, Oh, I've just come back  

from London. And next week, I'm going to Paris.  And in two weeks time I'm off to America. Wow,  

you really get about, meaning you travel a lot,  usually for work or for pleasure. So to get about.

And later on, I have a synonym for get about,  

but you'd have to stay awake and watch  the end of this particular lesson.

Okay, the next is to get along. Now, normally we  use another preposition get along with. Yeah. So  

we get along with most people. I'm very,  very friendly sort of person I get along  

with anybody who gets along with me. Do you  get along with your colleagues? Do you get  

along with your family? Of course, you can  always use it in the negative. I don't get  

along with my work colleagues, I don't have  anything in common with them only work. Or  

I don't get along with my family, particularly  my younger or older brother or siblings. Okay,  

so to get along with people means to  have a good relationship with them.

To get after. Well, this could be a great phrasal  verb to use, particularly by policemen. If there's  

somebody has robbed there... somebody's wallet or  handbag in the street, somebody might shout at the  

policeman, Don't just stand there, get after  him, run after him. He's much older than you,  

you'll be able to catch him. So get after him.  Okay. Or if the dog runs out the door when you  

leave the door open in the morning, one of the  kids shouts, Dad, Dad, the dog's out! You have to  

get after him. So you have to chase after the dog,  call him and hopefully catch him. Okay, so to get  

after the thief running down the street, or get  after the dog who's also running down the street.

Get ahead. Well, we all like to get ahead.  So to get ahead means to make progress,  

particularly in your career. He's  joined a really good company,  

he hopes to get ahead very quickly. Okay,  so he hopes to make progress very quickly.  

Or if you're driving along the street, and  you see some friends up ahead of you. Can  

you drive a little bit faster and get ahead of  them? Yeah, so means to overtake them. Okay.

To get away. Well, if you fancy a couple  of days break, you might tell your partner,  

Do you think we'll be able to get away this  weekend? Oh, I don't see why not. We could go  

somewhere quite close. There're some nice hotels  around. We can check in for the night and if it's  

fine the next day, we can stay a second night.  So to get away means to depart usually for a  

short little break. So to get away for a nice  weekend. Get away for a relaxing weekend. Get  

away from the kids. Get away from the  stresses of life. Get away from work,  

okay. You might even say, Can you get away  from work early tonight? Means can you get  

home a little bit early. I'm cooking a special  dinner, your favourite. And it would be nice  

if we could sit down as a family and enjoy  this meal. So to get away from work early.

There's also get away with something that means  to be able to be a little bit devious and nobody  

notices either that you made a mistake, or you  did something wrong that you shouldn't have  

done. But you get away with it. To get away with  something. So for example, a thief breaks into  

the museum or the art gallery, and he steals some  quite priceless paintings. But the alarm for some  

reason didn't go off. So the robbery was only  discovered the next morning. And by that time,  

the thief had got away with the paintings. Okay.  So to get away with something here is to escape  

without being detected, okay. Or you might have  made a little bit of a mistake, you were planning  

a surprise for your wife for her birthday or for  Christmas. But you left the box out on the bed,  

and you didn't realise she was going  to be home so early. Luckily for you,  

she didn't go into the bedroom immediately. So  you got away with it. Yeah. So you didn't... you  

weren't discovered. Or your secret wasn't  uncovered. To get away with something.

Next, to get back to someone. That means  to return a call or to send an email,  

Leave it with me, I'll get back to you later.  

So somebody sends you an email, they want answer  to a particular question, they want some help with  

a particular problem. So you just bang off an  email, it says, Leave it with me, I'll get back  

to you later. So it means you will return the  call or send the information or send an email.

Get behind. Well, get behind can be used in a  couple of ways. You can get behind your local  

team and support them. So perhaps the message goes  out that the team is not playing so well at the  

moment. And they want all the fans to get behind  the team, this weekend as a crunch match against  

the local rivals. And whoever wins the match has  got a good chance of staying in the division. So  

please come and support your team, get behind  them. Means come and give them support, okay.

But you can also get behind in  your work means you fall behind,  

you're not able to keep up. Perhaps you've  been out on holidays, or perhaps you've been  

sick for a few days. And you've just got behind  with your work. So you're telling your partner,  

you're going to be working late for the  next few nights. So don't expect me home  

before eight or nine at night because I  really need to catch up. I got a little  

bit behind with my work due to my illness  or due to the holiday. So to get behind.

Get beyond. Well, get beyond is another  phrasal verb. It's not so well-used,  

I don't use it so often. But what it means  is to get past some problem that you have  

or difficulty. Or perhaps some angry feelings  that you have. So perhaps somebody didn't do  

something that you wanted them to do, or something  negative, and you're really feeling bad about it,  

a little bit annoyed. But you have to get beyond  that because you have to get on with the person  

in your work, whoever is responsible for that  particular problem. So you tell yourself Look,  

just forget it, put it in the past. Let's  get beyond it. And let's move on. Okay,  

so when you want to get beyond something,  you want to push it to the back of your mind,  

forget about it, and just concentrate  on the future. So to get beyond.

Get by. Well, we get by when we exist, or  we survive. So to get by means to be able  

to survive on certain amount of money,  or an amount of food. So perhaps if,  

you know, somebody retires, and when  they look at their pension payments,  

it's really, really small. And they say,  I'm going to struggle to get by on this,  

I'm going to probably have to do a part-time  job or to take a part-time job. So to get by on  

something quite small. Or perhaps your partner's  going away for a few days, and you're not so  

good in the kitchen. And she tells you look, I've  left some food already prepared in the fridge. So  

hopefully you'll be able to get by on that. And  you won't starve to death while I'm away. Okay,  

so to get by on the food or to get by on some  sort of lower payment that you weren't expecting.

Get down to something. Well, we often use this in  connection with work to get down to means to start  

doing something. I have to get down to some really  hard work next week because that presentation is  

due by the end of the month. So you tell your  team, Yeah, we're really going to have to put our  

heads together and come up with some really good  ideas and let's get down to some serious work.  

Or you might tell one of the kids that, you  know, they really have to get down to some  

serious study because the exams are very early  next year, and you need to study so you're not  

left behind. So remember those exams are early,  so you've got to get down to some hard study. So  

you... You've got to really apply yourself,  you've got to really put your head down in  

those books, and revise and learn as much  as possible. So to get down to something.

Get in, okay, well, when we say get in, there's  lots of uses of this. We can simply get in the  

car and drive to work. Or we can get in some  food for the party that we're going to have  

at the weekend. A housewarming party or some  birthday party, or just some celebration with  

your friends. So I'll get in some beer and some  food. But if you want to bring something along,  

you bring that along with you. So  to get in is to get a supply ready.

And we can also get into something. We can get  into a rage, we can get into a bad mood. So when  

we get into it's about physical, okay. Get into  a taxi. Or it's something that's psychological.  

You get into a bad mood, when you start thinking  about all the work that you have to do, all the  

problems that you have, okay. So to get into  something physical, like the taxi. Or get into  

something emotional, and the mood that you find  yourself in because of certain pressures in life.

Get someone into something, we can  get someone into trouble. Okay,  

so to get someone into trouble is when  you tell the teacher, for example,  

that your friend broke the window. Okay. So to  get someone into difficulty means you put them  

in an awkward position. So let me give you the  example. So if little Johnny and David are playing  

in the schoolyard, and Johnny kicks a ball and  breaks the window, and when the teacher starts  

asking who broke the window. David, do you know  anything about this? It was him. It was him,  

it was Johnny. So you get Johnny into trouble  with the teacher because he kicked the ball.  

But really, as a friend, he shouldn't have been  telling or he shouldn't have been ratting on his  

friend. So to get someone into trouble. But we  can also get someone into difficulty by perhaps  

not doing something that we promised. Perhaps you  forgot to send the money to your daughter, and she  

needs to pay her rent. Or you forgot to stop at  the supermarket and buy some flowers that your  

wife wanted you to buy so that she could present  them to her mother. So you... you got her into  

some difficulty over that. So you have to make  amends. Okay, so to get someone in to something.

To get off. Well, we can get off to a good start.  

Okay, so if you started a new job, and the first  week you thought was going to be really difficult,  

but you had some really good successes  with the sales. So by the end of the week,  

your new boss was really, really happy. And he  said, Wow, you've really got off to a good start,  

you got off to a flyer. So it means it's been  very successful from the very start. Or you  

could get off to a bad start with somebody.  Perhaps you're trying to chat up a girl or  

you're trying to make a good impression. But you  say something that you you thought was funny,  

but she didn't find it funny. So you can say to  your friends, Well, I tried but I don't think  

I got off to a very good start. I think I made  a few mistakes, okay, so you can get off well,  

or you can get off in a bad way. Okay, so to get  off to a good start, or get off to a bad start. So  

depending on whether you look at it positively, or  negatively. And we can also get off something like  

we can get off the bus at the next stop. We can  get off the train when it pulls into the station,  

okay, so it means to step down from the bus,  to leave the bus. To step down from the train,  

leave the train when it gets into the station or  pulls up to the platform. To get off something.

We can also get someone off. Okay,  so slightly different, we can get  

our friend off the duty in the hospital. So  perhaps you are nurses working together or  

doctors working together and you want to go  to the football match. And he wants to go to,  

but he has to work the night shift. So you  find somebody that they can swap so you get  

your friend off the night shift so that he  can go along to the football match with you.

We can get on with something. Okay, get on with  our work. We had before to get along with and  

we can also get on with our colleagues or our  friends. Okay. So when you say to get on with  

it means to continue or to get on with also means  to have a good relationship with. So if we take  

get on with the work, to continue. The teacher  comes into the classroom and the kids are running  

around and shouting and screaming. And she just  says, Come on, come on, come on. Sit down and get  

on with that homework I gave you. Please get on  with the work. I'll be back in 20 minutes. And I  

expect that you have all have finished it by then.  So to get on with, continue the work I gave you.  

But we can also use it as I said to  get on with other people. I get on with  

everybody. When somebody has really good, friendly  relationship with people, they get on with people,  

they get on with anybody. They get on with their  parents, they get on with their in-laws, whoever  

it might be. To get on with means to have good  friendship, good relationship, good understanding.

Get out. Well, we often say and we did,  we said it during the time of COVID,  

we need to get out more. We've been spending too  much time at home, too much time with the kids,  

we need to do something. Let's get a couple  of bicycles, and let's just get out more.  

You can also try to get out of a difficulty. Okay,  so to get out of a difficulty means to try and  

avoid the difficulty. Okay, too. How am I going to  get out of this problem? So you ask your friend,  

have you got any suggestions? How am I going  to get out of this? I promised the boss that I  

would work at the weekend. And I really really  don't want to. Have you any suggestions how I  

might get out of that? Okay, so to get out of  something means to escape without doing it.

Get someone or something out. Okay.  So again, here we're talking about,  

you could just literally get something  out of the fridge. So you come home,  

there's nobody at home, I'm on my own again,  I'd have to cook something. So I'll have to get  

something out of the fridge. Or you go to your  car, this there's a bag or a box in the boot  

of the car. So you go out to get something  the box out of the boot of the car. Okay,  

so you get something out of the fridge, get  something out of the boot of the car, okay?

To get over something, or indeed to get over  someone. This has to do with the breakup of  

relationships. Okay, so if your daughter's  relationship with a boyfriend breaks up,  

you're talking to your wife, How long is it  going to take her to get over this? Or you  

know what she's like, within a few days,  everything will be fine. She'll get over  

it very quickly. She's very resilient. Yeah.  So she'll get over it means she will recover.  

You can also recover from the flu or an  illness. Oh, he got over the cold really,  

really quickly. I thought he would be sick for  a few more days. But he... he perked up after  

a couple of days. So you get he got over it  very, very quickly. So to get over something  

cold or the fluid to... to recover. Or to get  over someone when you've had a breakup of a  

relationship. Some people it takes less time. Some  people it takes more time to get over someone.

That's number 21, by the way,  so we're now on to number 22.

To get past something, or to get past someone.  Well, if you are walking down the street,  

and there are lots of people in front of you, in  your you are in a bit of a hurry, because you're  

a little bit late for work. You try to... Excuse  me, excuse me, let me pass. I know how can I get  

past you? Yeah, so the it's a narrow footpath.  And you're not making much progress. So you have  

to be polite, but you're trying to be a little  bit firm say, Excuse me, I'm in a hurry, can I  

get past you? You try and get past someone means  to go by them because they are walking slowly. And  

you are in a bit of a hurry now. And it could be  the same when you're driving your car. You can be  

driving along the... the road and there's a car in  front of you going really slowly and you're trying  

to see is there any traffic coming in the opposite  direction because you really want to get past this  

person in the car, past this other car so you can  drive a little bit quicker. And you might get to  

work that little bit sooner than you're expecting.  So to get past something or someone, okay.

Now you can also use get past something that's  been on your mind for a long, long time. Oh,  

he just doesn't seem to be able to get past that  problem. He had the row last week with the boss,  

and it's been going on forever. He's  in a bad mood. You need to talk to him  

and tell him he just has to forget  about it, get past it and move on.

To get around. Now, this is the synonym that I was  talking to you about, the very first to get about.  

And to get around the mean exactly the same.  How do you get around the city? It's so busy,  

there's so much traffic. Oh, it's easy. You  just have to know the routes. I'll give you  

a couple of tips. Tell me where you want to go.  And there's always a shortcut that you can take  

to get around the city. Most people take one  of these bicycles because the bicycle lanes are  

really really good. So if you want to get around  the city quickly, just pick up one of these rent  

bikes. So that's how you'll get about or the  synonym how you will get around the city. Okay.

Now, there's another use to get around the  something, that usually means there's an obstacle,  

okay? So it could be a physical obstacle,  like a tree that's fallen in the park,  

it could be some motor or road repairs in the or  motor accidents in the street. So how do you get  

around that. Or particular problem at work that  you're trying to find a solution that you will be  

able to get around. Okay, so if it's a physical  obstruction, like a tree, you can walk around to  

get around it. If it's the physical obstruction  because there's been a traffic accident. Or maybe  

perhaps there are roadworks and road repairs,  then the easiest way to get around that is to  

follow the detour arrows. And it might take you  out of your way a bit, but you'd be there in no  

time. So to get around something. But if it's  a problem at work, well, then to get around it,  

you need to have a solution. How am I going to  get around this? I haven't met any problem like  

this before. But why don't you slip into  the boss and ask him? He tends to have an  

answer for most of these problems. To get around  something to find some way to avoid this block.

And in the same way, we have to get around  someone, someone who's a little bit stubborn,  

someone who's unlikely to change their mind.  How are we going to get around Michael? Yeah,  

just talk to him, tell them what it  means, tell them the implications,  

you will find a way to get around him. So when  we want to get around somebody, we are the one  

to persuade them to come around to our way of  thinking. Or we have to try and get them to  

stop blocking our idea. So we have to get around  someone. They've presented a little problem, and  

we need to talk them around to our way of thinking  so that no longer a problem to get around them.

Get through Well, we have to get through means to  get to the other side. Okay, so to if you've got a  

big pile of work, you've got to get through  it before the end of the week, otherwise,  

you won't be able to rest for Saturday and Sunday,  because it'll be on your mind. And it will make  

your weekend a nightmare. Okay, so you have to  get through it no matter what it takes. Or your  

children, they have to be prepared for tough exams  when they go into university. So they have to get  

through them somehow, they got to have to study  hard, they got to have to attend all lectures,  

take notes. And yeah, they'll gradually and  generally settled down after a while. And  

they'll find a way to get through it, they always  do. We'll get through it together is an expression  

that you'll hear when people have financial  problems. Maybe they have family problems,  

and somebody is sick, and they might  be very chronic illness. Don't worry,  

we will get through this together. We've always  faced problems together, we will get through it.

Get to. This is number 27. We can get to  know someone, get to understand someone,  

get to like somebody. So get to means a way  of improving our relationship with somebody,  

get to know them better. Get to understand them.  So we understand the problem they have. Get to  

like somebody, perhaps you didn't like them at the  very beginning, but over time, you can see that  

they're a little bit quirky, a little bit unusual.  But actually they've got a heart of gold. So once  

you get to know them, you get to like them. You  might get to like the place you're working in, you  

might get like the place you're living in which  you might not have liked it in the very beginning.

Get together. Well, this is a nice way to have  a party or have a meeting with your friends.  

A little soiree, a little dinner, bowling,  whatever it might be. Why don't we all get  

together next weekend? We haven't met each other  for I don't know how long. Months and months and  

months. It's about time we got together.  So we get all the gang and we go bowling,  

grab a pizza, grab a burger, whatever it might  be. It's would it be fun. To get together.

To get up. This is a very simple phrasal  verb. We all get up in the morning. Yeah,  

so we get out of bed. We jump in the  shower. What time do you get up at? Oh,  

I usually get up at six or  just before six o'clock.

And finally the last of our phrasal verbs I want  to use is to get up to. So what does it mean? Get  

up to. Well, this is a very informal way to say  or to ask somebody, what are they doing or what  

are they going to do or what did they... what  did they do. So what did you get up to at the  

weekend? Or what are you getting up to this  weekend? So an informal way to ask somebody,  

what will you do? Where will you go? How will you  spend your time? And I remember long, long ago,  

my dear mother telling me, Don't get up to  something or anything that I wouldn't do. So  

sort of a warning that if you're going away  for a weekend, just be careful what you do.  

So don't get up to anything that I wouldn't do.  So to get up to something informal way to say,  

what are you doing? What are you going to do? Or  what did you do, depending on which tense you use.

Okay, well, there you have it. That's  the 30 phrasal verbs. So hopefully,  

you'll find some of them that are useful.  I'm sure you'll find some of them that  

you already use. And it's just a question  of adding a few more to your repertoire.

Okay, so practice them. As I always say, you  know the drill by now, if you want some more  

examples, and you just need to write to me  www.englishlessonviaskype.com. Always happy  

to hear from you and always happy to include your  suggestions in some future lessons that we have.  

This one is a particularly long one. Hopefully,  you stayed awake. Hopefully you've enjoyed it.  

Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. This is  Harry saying goodbye. Join me for the next lesson.