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Phrasal Verbs

Get At

What does the phrasal verb 'Get At' mean? Clear definitions, real examples and a short video, explained by a British English teacher.

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What does ‘Get At’ mean?

Related forms: Transitive and inseparable:

To criticize. To nag. To be critical of. To find fault with. Get at is often used to show that the criticism occurs frequently.

“At school the teachers always got at me because my handwriting was terrible”.
“"I'm not trying to get at you, but you really must improve your work."”.
“Please stop getting at me for my faults. I'm only human”.

To have access to. To be able to reach.

“You can get at the water in the lake, if you break the ice”.
“Can you get the things in the bottom of the bag?”.
“Don't hide the keys anywhere that they is easy to get at”.
“I am trying to get at the truth”.

To mean. To explain a train of thought. To show an idea.

“Do you understand what I am trying to get at?”.
“We are both getting at the idea, but in divergent ways?”.
“What's he getting at? (very informal and slightly rude)”.

To begin to work seriously. To start to do a task in earnest.

“Let's get at it”.
“If we want to finish before 4 o'clock, we had better get at our work”.

Watch: ‘Get At’ explained

Video transcript

To get at. A phrasal verb with two meanings. The first meaning: to complain about, to try to hurt mentally. Second meaning: to access, to be able to get to, to be able to reach, to be able to have access to. Let's look at these in a little more detail. So, to get at, to complain about. This phrasal verb is inseperative (Oops! inseparable) and transitive. Inseparable means get at it, get at something, get at somebody. The object, the direct object must go after the at. And transitive, it takes a direct object. Let me give some examples of to get at, to complain about, to try to hurt mentally. So for example: Many people, or many men feel that their wife is always getting at them. Complaining about them. OK. Or at school many children feel that the teacher is always getting at them. Complaining about them. Let's try a meaning with try to hurt. Eeerm. Yes. My ex wife is always sending me junk mail to get at me. To try to hurt me. OK. To get at. Let's look at the other meaning now. To access. To be able to get to. So for example: My fridge is full of things, like that some things at the back are very difficult to get at. To access, to have a way to get them. So, to get at, to have access to. Again this phrasal verb is inseparable, but can be both transitive and intransitive. So it can take a direct object or not. So there you are, complain about, or have access to. So I hope that made things clear, I will enjoy seeing you in the next video, thanks for watching and bye.

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