Month: February 2010

What is the obsession with prepositions in our language?  I remember, when I went to Italy for that year, being astounded that there was an entirely different verb for every get-plus-preposition we use in English.  Think about it:

• get in (a car)
• get in (a college)
• get out (of a car)
• get out (“Get OUT!  I don’t believe it!”)
• get up (from bed)
• get up (…you know)
• get down (off a ladder)
• get down (boogie)
• get at (an internal organ during surgery)
• get at (“What are you getting at?”)
• get to (a destination)
• get to (“She really gets to me.”)
• get on (a plane, a train)
• get on (one’s last nerve)
• get off (a train)
• get off (…what one might do after one gets up)
• get over (a wall)
• get over (“I’ll never get over him.”)
• get across (a river)
• get across (your point)
• get behind (a blast shield)
• get behind (a cause)
• get between (two parked cars)
• get between (“I don’t want my hatred of your mother to get between us.”)
• get by (a person in a grocery aisle)
• get by (survive on little money)
• get through (a tunnel)
• get through (a tough time)
• get around (“Here we get around by Vespa.”)
• get around (“That Amy…she gets around.”)

Got more?