Hello folks,
I’ve been thinking about this entry for a while. The verb get is both brilliant and brutal. If you have a very limited vocabulary in English, get is your friend. As my grandmother likes to say: it can cover a multitude. Or, as one of my colleagues likes to put it: get is a catch-all verb. Very often get can be used as a substitute for a myriad of other verbs making it super-useful to new learners of English. However, for more advanced learners of English get is the verb equivalent of the adjective nice: it’s bland.
In my opinion, get constructions should be reserved for instances when there is no better alternative, which is a rare occurrence. There are a few instances in which a get-construction is the only idiomatic option, for example, get married, or get divorced. Those instances that call for get as the only option are, by their very nature, passive. In order to get married, you fill out paperwork but the marriage happens when the registrar files or signs the documents. The same thing happens with a divorce.
My German friends should note that people don’t get babies. Babies are born, or a person has a baby. Hearing something like: “my sister is getting a baby,” makes me think: What the hell? Is she going to a shop to buy one, or did she choose it from a catalogue? Babies aren’t got in the way that you get a present or a bill, in which case received is the better verb choice.
Even though get can serve a multitude of purposes often there is a better one-word verb that would do the job more effectively. Especially in an academic context, get-constructions are generally considered to be informal register. As a broad generalisation get is a useful verb for new learners of English but once they have reached an intermediate level of English (B1/B2) encourage them to use more specific verbs especially in instances that don’t require a passive construction.
