Common Collocations With GET with Practice and Exercises

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As you may already know, “get” is a power word with many different meanings and uses. In this article, we will explore the various ways in which “get” can be used, including its common collocations and idioms. Throughout this article, we will provide examples of everyday English usage to help you better understand and remember the different meanings of “get”.

Understanding the Word “Get”

In this lesson, we will explore the various meanings of the word “get.” It is a power word in English and has numerous uses. We will discuss some common collocations and idioms that use “get” as well.

• The first way of use ‘get’ is to gain possession of or to buy something. For example, “I got these fake plants, some wood for the background, and other bits and bobs from Amazon.” Other expressions with “get” in this context include “What did you get for your birthday?” and “I’m thinking about getting a new car soon.“
• The second way to use “get” is when we want to talk about becoming ill or being ill. A common phrase here is “to get sick.” For instance, “I haven’t been sick for a long time” or “I’ve got a cold.”
• The third way we can use “get” is to obtain something or to bring something to someone. For example, “Could you get me a tea?” or “If you have time, get me some bananas on your way home.”
• We can also use “get” to mean understand. For instance, “I didn’t quite get that. Could you explain that again?” or “I didn’t get what you mean.”
• Another way to use “get” is to describe a change, such as “It’s getting dark” or “Your tea’s getting cold.” We can also use “get” for movement, such as “Get your hands out of your pockets” or “Quick, get in the car.”
• When it comes to traveling, we can use “get” to mean arriving somewhere. For example, “What time is David going to get here?” We can also use “get” to mean achieving or being given something, such as “I got my acceptance letter yesterday” or “I got my haircut yesterday.”

Common Collocations With GET

In this section, we will discuss some of the most common collocations with the verb “get”. These collocations are used frequently in spoken and written English, and mastering them will help you sound more like a native speaker.

GET + Adjective

One of the most common ways to use “get” is with an adjective. Here are some examples:

• Get angry
• Get tired
• Get nervous
• Get sick
• Get excited

Using “get” with an adjective is a great way to describe how you are feeling. For example, you might say “I’m getting tired” if you have been working for a long time and need a break.

GET + Preposition

Another common way to use “get” is with a preposition. Here are some examples:

• Get up
• Get over
• Get through
• Get by
• Get away

Using “get” with a preposition is a great way to describe an action. For example, you might say “I need to get up early tomorrow” if you have an early morning appointment.

GET + Verb

Finally, you can also use “get” with another verb to create a collocation. Here are some examples:

• Get a job
• Get a haircut
• Get a drink
• Get a ticket
• Get a grip

Using “get” with another verb is a great way to describe an action that you need to take. For example, you might say “I need to get a haircut” if your hair is getting too long.

List of Collocations with GET

Using GET in Everyday Conversations

Using ‘Get’ to Indicate Possession

One of the most common ways to use ‘get’ is to indicate possession. This means to gain ownership of something or to buy it. For example, “I got these fake plants from Amazon.” Here are some more common expressions with ‘get’ to indicate possession:

• What did you get for your birthday?
• I’m thinking about getting a new car soon.
• I haven’t got my wife anything for Christmas yet.

Another way to use ‘get’ is to talk about becoming ill or being ill. A common phrase here is ‘to get sick’. For example, “I’ve got a cold.” Here are some more examples:

• She keeps getting sick.
• I’ve got a bit of a headache today.

We also use ‘get’ to obtain something or to bring something to someone. For example, “Could you get me a tea?” Another way to say this is “Can you make me a tea?” Here are some more examples:

• If you have time, get me some bananas on your way home.
• Get some breakfast and then we’ll go.

Using “Get” to Talk About Illness

In English, we use the word “get” in many different ways. One way we use it is to talk about becoming ill or being ill. A common phrase for this is “to get sick.” For example, “I’ve got a cold” or “She keeps getting sick.” In American English, you may also hear “gotten” used with the present perfect tense, such as “I haven’t gotten sick for a long time.” However, in British English, we simply say “I haven’t got sick for a long time.”

Using “Get” to Obtain or Bring Something

In this lesson, we learned that “get” is a versatile word in English, with many different meanings and uses. One way to use “get” is to obtain or bring something to someone. For example, we might say “Could you get me a tea?” or “Get some breakfast and then we’ll go.”

We also learned that “get” can be used to mean “understand,” as in “I didn’t quite get that. Could you explain it again?”

Using ‘Get’ for Movement

One of the ways we can use ‘get’ is to talk about movement. Here are some examples:

• “It’s getting dark” means that it’s changing from light to dark.
• “Your tea’s getting cold” means that the temperature of the tea is decreasing.
• “Get down” means to move to the floor.

Using “Get” in Relation to Vehicles

The first way is to use “get” to mean gaining possession of or buying a vehicle. For example, “I’m thinking about getting a new car soon.”

Another way “get” can be used is when talking about movement, such as getting into or out of a vehicle. For instance, “Quick, get in the car, it’s raining outside!”

We can also use “get” to talk about changes in the condition of a vehicle, such as “Your tea’s getting cold, you should drink it now.”

Lastly, we can use “get” to refer to the act of traveling in a vehicle, such as “What time is David going to get here?”

Using ‘Get’ to Indicate Arrival

In this lesson, we’ll explore the various ways to use the word ‘get’. One of the common ways to use ‘get’ is to indicate arrival. For example, after getting on a train, you get off it. Here are some more examples of using ‘get’ for movement:

• Let’s get off here (when you’re on a bus or a train)
• Quick, get in (about a car)
• Quick, get on the train (when you’re about to miss the train)

When you arrive somewhere, you can also say ‘get somewhere’ instead of using the verb ‘arrive’. For instance, you could ask someone, “What time are you going to get here?” Here are some more examples of using ‘get’ to indicate arrival:

• I hope my package gets here today.
• Come on, let’s get going. We’ll get there really late otherwise.

Practice and Exercises

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