GET

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In this podcast, you will hear a conversation between Debbie and John in which they use a
lot of expressions with GET – listen out for them and try to work out the meaning from
the context.

Debbie: Hello John!

John: Hello there, Debbie!
Debbie: You won´t believe what happened to me this morning!
John: What happened?
Debbie: Well, as I was getting on the train, I heard someone shout my name. It was my
friend Jane from school. I hadn’t seen her in years!
John: What a coincidence! Does she live near you?
Debbie: Well, she´s just moved to the area. She got on the train with me and we got off
at the same stop so we had a good chat. She told me that she´s living near me now with
her daughter. Apparently, she´s getting over a terrible divorce. She and her husband
decided to get divorced over a year ago but had continued living together until she
decided that she just needed to get away, so a friend rented her a small apartment.
John: That sounds stressful! I can´t imagine living with someone I was divorcing!
Debbie: Yes! She said that, at first, they got on well because they didn´t want to upset
their daughter. However, after a while, they started to get on each other´s nerves and
argue a lot until a friend offered her an apartment and she got in a taxi and left!
John: And how is she now?
Debbie: She says that they´re getting by and she´s sure that things will get better now
that they have their own space.

John: Well, I hope she gets through this tough time.

Debbie: Thank you. I told her that if she needs anything, she can get in touch and I can
help her.
John: That was kind!

Did you get the meaning of the expressions with “get” that we used?
We use get on and get off to talk about entering and leaving transport such as trains,
buses, bikes and the underground, but we use get in and get out for entering and leaving
cars and taxis.
Debbie: That´s right. My friend and I got on the train together and got off at the same
stop but she got in a taxi to go to her new apartment. We can also use “Get out!” to tell
someone to leave.
John: Debbie said that her friend was getting over her divorce. To get over something
means to recover from something, we can get over the trauma of a relationship that has
ended and we can also get over an illness. For example, “I found it hard to get over my
ex-partner” and “I´m getting over a cold.”
Debbie: You poor thing! I also spoke about my friend needing to get away, which means to
escape. We can use it to talk about escaping in general, escaping someone, a place or to
another place, for example “I go to the mountains when I need to get away from the city.”
Notice that we use ‘from’ to say what we are escaping.
John: Get away with sounds similar but the meaning is different! Get away with means to
escape punishment. For example, when we were children, my brother and I were playing
football in the garden and he broke an ornament with the ball but he got away with it -
he hid the ornament and my mum never realised it was him!
Debbie: Did you and your brother get on well when you were children?
John: Yes, we did. We got on like a house on fire! Get on well means to have a good
relationship and we can say don´t get on to say the opposite – when people don´t have a
good relationship. Like my brother and his mother-in-law – they don´t get on at all. To
get on like a house on fire is an expression that means llevarse de maravilla – like me
and my brother.
Debbie: To get by means to have just enough of something to manage or survive but not to
have extra. For example, “Many people in the world get by on a low income.”
John: And I know enough Spanish to get by but I’m not fluent!
Debbie: I think you mostly get your message across. Get something across means to make
someone understand you.
John: Yes, but there are some people like my neighbour that I just can’t get through to.
This also means to make someone understand you.
Debbie: Get through by itself means to complete something difficult, for example I have a
lot of work to get through today or to survive a difficult situation. As John said
before, he hopes Jane gets through the divorce.
John: Yes. She can always get in touch with you for help, like you said. Get in touch
means to contact someone.
Debbie: Do you get the meanings now? Can you think of two more verbs with get that we
didn’t mention?
John: Hmmmm, Get up and ……. get out of.
Debbie: Well done! Get up means to leave your bed in the morning. I get up at 7 o´clock
during the week.
John: And get out of means to avoid doing something. For example, I sometimes make
excuses to get out of gardening or going shopping!

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