Problems With the News

Sometimes I get very tired of watching, reading, or listening to the news. It seems that people are always getting killed, or getting themselves hurt. I get so sad about this and just want to get on with my life. I want to escape into a world where the good guys always get the bad guys and good people get a happy ending. Of course, I know this is not reality, and because of my job, I have got to get going with real life. So I get my happy ending from a good book or TV show, and then get working on something meaningful to help my students get away from their problems with English.

Time to go Deeper

In my first post about how “get” is the little verb that does everything, I showed you many uses of this little word. But now it is time to really start learning the different meanings of “get.” In my little paragraph you saw a picture of where we are going.

Making Things Simpler

The way that I like to make this complicated little verb simpler is to divide the meanings of get in to verb groups. You already know that there are different kinds of verbs in english, or you will learn this when you study more. The verbs have different jobs in English sentences. “Get” is able to do many of these jobs. Here is a list of the main groups where you will find the word “get” with examples from my paragraph.

Verb Groups

main verb

I get so sad about this…

I want to escape into a world where the good guys always get the bad guys and good people get a happy ending.

…get going with real life.

So I get my happy ending from a good book or TV show, and then get working on something meaningful…

phrasal verb

and just want to get on with my life.

…to help my students get away from their problems with English.

passive verb

Sometimes I get very tired of watching, reading, or listening to the news.

It seems that people are always getting killed,…

causative verb

or getting themselves hurt.

“have got” constructions

Of course, I know this is not reality, and because of my job, I have got to…

The last thing on the list is because “have got” and “have got to” are in other groups of verbs, but they are a little more strange than other uses of “get.”

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn. What sentence/s can you think of that uses “get?” Which group does it belong to? Leave a comment with your answer.