50 Collocations with Get in Context

Hello English learners! Learning collocations with get is one of the best ways to make your English sound more natural and fluent. The verb get is extremely common in everyday English, and it appears in hundreds of useful expressions.

In this lesson, you will learn 50 useful collocations and common expressions with get, together with clear meanings and natural example sentences. You will also learn some useful patterns that can help you understand why get is used in so many different ways.

Get can mean:

receive
become
obtain
arrive
understand
start doing something
move from one place to another

That is why learning collocations with get is so useful. Instead of memorising the verb by itself, it is much better to learn it as part of a complete expression.

For example:

get married
get dressed
get upset
get permission
get home

Some of the expressions in this lesson are technically phrasal verbs or fixed expressions rather than strict collocations. However, they are all common combinations with get that are worth learning as complete chunks.

Let’s begin.

Table of Contents

Everyday Life and Daily Routines

These expressions are very common when we talk about everyday activities, health and routines.

#	Expression	Meaning	Example
1	get a call	receive a phone call	I got a call from Nina this morning.
2	get a cold	become ill with a cold	Take a jacket or you might get a cold.
3	get dark	become dark	It gets dark quite early in winter.
4	get a tan	become browner after being in the sun	Olivia got a lovely tan on holiday in Greece.
5	get out of breath	begin breathing heavily after physical activity	I get out of breath when I run up those stairs.
6	get hungry	become hungry	I always get hungry at about eleven o’clock.
7	get ready	prepare yourself for something	We need to get ready before the guests arrive.
8	get a haircut	have your hair cut	Daniel got a haircut before the wedding.
9	get some rest	relax or sleep in order to recover	You look exhausted. You should get some rest.
10	get dressed	put your clothes on	Hurry up and get dressed or we’ll miss the train.

Notice that several of these use get + adjective:

get hungry
get ready
get dark

Here, get often means become.

Starting, Moving and Doing Things

We also use get in many expressions connected with starting an activity, travelling and moving from one place to another.

#	Expression	Meaning	Example
11	get started	begin doing something	Everyone is here, so let’s get started.
12	get together	meet socially	We should get together for coffee next week.
13	get going	start leaving or moving	It’s getting late. We should get going.
14	get moving	start moving or act more quickly	Come on, get moving — we’re already late.
15	get on	enter a bus, train, plane or other form of transport	We need to get on the bus at the next stop.
16	get off	leave a bus, train, plane or other form of transport	We need to get off at Baker Street.
17	get into	enter a car or taxi	She got into the car and drove away.
18	get out	leave a place or go outside	You should get out for a walk.
19	get home	arrive home	What time did you get home last night?
20	get stuck	become unable to move or make progress	Sorry I’m late — I got stuck in traffic.

Get on or get into?

We normally use get on with larger forms of public transport:

get on a bus
get on a train
get on a plane

We normally use get into with cars and taxis:

get into a car
get into a taxi

Similarly:

get off a bus
get out of a car

Learning these combinations as complete phrases is much easier than trying to remember individual rules every time you speak.

Problems and Difficult Situations

Many expressions with get describe problems, emotions and difficult situations.

#	Expression	Meaning	Example
21	get into trouble	become involved in a difficult or problematic situation	If you keep breaking the rules, you’ll get into trouble.
22	get lost	lose your way	We got lost in Prague and ended up in a beautiful little square.
23	get wet	become wet	Take an umbrella or you’ll get wet.
24	get a shock	feel very surprised or upset by something unexpected	I got a shock when I saw how much the repairs cost.
25	get upset	become unhappy or emotional	She got upset when she heard the news.
26	get tired	become tired	I get tired if I work on the computer for too long.
27	get to sleep	manage to fall asleep	I was so worried that I couldn’t get to sleep.
28	get away with something	do something wrong without being punished	He copied the essay, but he didn’t get away with it.
29	get over something	recover from an illness, disappointment or difficult experience	It took her months to get over the break-up.
30	get nowhere	fail to make progress	We’re getting nowhere with this discussion.
31	get somewhere	begin to make progress	After weeks of work, we’re finally getting somewhere.

Get somewhere and get nowhere

These two expressions are often used figuratively.

Get somewhere means make progress:

I think we’re finally getting somewhere with the project.

Get nowhere means make no progress:

Arguing with him will get you nowhere.

They do not necessarily refer to physically travelling somewhere.

Relationships, Understanding and Life Changes

The verb get is also very common when we talk about relationships, important life events and understanding other people.

#	Expression	Meaning	Example
32	get married	marry; become husband and wife	My cousins are getting married in June.
33	get divorced	legally end a marriage	They got divorced after ten years together.
34	get pregnant	become pregnant	She got pregnant not long after the wedding.
35	get along with someone	have a good relationship with someone	I get along with my colleagues very well.
36	get to know someone	gradually learn more about someone	It takes time to get to know new people.
37	get the message	understand what someone is trying to communicate, often indirectly	I think he’s finally getting the message that I’m busy.
38	get the point	understand the main idea	I didn’t agree at first, but now I get the point.
39	get a joke	understand why something is funny	I’m afraid I didn’t get the joke.
40	get the impression	begin to think or feel that something is true	I got the impression that they didn’t want us there.
41	get used to	become familiar or comfortable with something	It took me a while to get used to living in a new country.

Be used to vs get used to

These two structures are related, but they are not exactly the same.

Be used to describes a situation that is already familiar:

I am used to working from home.

Get used to describes the process of becoming familiar with it:

It took me a few weeks to get used to working from home.

After both expressions, we use a noun or -ing form:

get used to the weather
get used to driving on the left
get used to living alone

Work, Study, Achievement and Change

These expressions are useful when talking about education, jobs, opportunities, success and personal change.

#	Expression	Meaning	Example
42	get the chance	have an opportunity to do something	Not everyone gets the chance to study abroad.
43	get a degree	successfully complete university studies and receive a degree	She hopes to get a degree in engineering.
44	get permission	receive permission to do something	We had to get permission from the head teacher first.
45	get a job	find or be offered employment	He was delighted when he got the job.
46	get sacked	lose your job because your employer dismisses you	He got sacked for repeatedly arriving late.
47	get experience	gain practical knowledge or skill by doing something	She took a summer job to get some experience in marketing.
48	get excited	become excited	Children often get excited before Christmas.
49	get drunk	become drunk	He got drunk at the party.
50	get old	become old; also used when something becomes boring through repetition	We’re all getting old, whether we like it or not.

The expression get old can also have a figurative meaning:

That joke is getting old.

Here, it means that something has been repeated so often that it is becoming boring or annoying.

Why Are Collocations with Get Useful for Cambridge Exams?

Knowing common collocations with get can help you in several parts of the B2 First and C1 Advanced exams.

They can be useful in:

Reading and Use of English
speaking tasks
informal emails and articles
vocabulary transformations
multiple-choice cloze exercises

Cambridge exams often test whether you know which words naturally go together rather than whether you simply know their individual meanings.

For example, learners may know the words permission, married, and trouble, but they also need to know that we naturally say:

get permission
get married
get into trouble

Learning vocabulary in chunks is therefore particularly useful for exam preparation.

Final Thoughts

The verb get may look simple, but it is one of the most flexible verbs in English.

Instead of trying to learn all of its meanings separately, learn common collocations with get as complete expressions.

Try to notice phrases such as:

get ready
get permission
get stuck
get the point
get used to

when you hear or read English.

The more often you meet these combinations in context, the easier it becomes to use them naturally in your own speaking and writing.

The old workhorse of English, get, may be short, but it certainly pulls a heavy cart.

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50 Collocations with Get in Context

Published by My Lingua Academy on 19 Sep 202119 Sep 2021

Everyday Life and Daily Routines