TO GET SOMETHING DONE

Good morning. I hope everyone had a good weekend. If you look in your dictionary, you will see that the verb get is one of the most common words in English and it is used many expressions and grammatical constructions. We have talked about some of the different meanings and uses of get in previous Daily Vitamins (November 3rd through 11th, 2004) and for the next few days we're going to look at some others related to going back to.., or should I say getting back to, work after our holidays. Today's expression is: to get something done It means: to cause something to happen; to cause something to be done. Example 1: I find it difficult to get any work done after being on holiday for two weeks. I need to return to my work routine. Example 2: Did you get the project done or do you need more time? If we change the verb done to another past participle (cut, repaired, ...), we can use this expression to talk about activities that we ask other people to do for us, like cutting our hair or repairing things in our home. These grammatical structures are called causatives because we "cause" another person to do something. Example 3: Sharon gets her hair cut at the salon once a month. Example 4: When we moved into our new home we had to get the electrical installations repaired. Tomorrow we will look at another expression with get. If you have any questions about this expression, please don't hesitate to contact me. Have a good day!