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Feb 25, 2018

A Phrasal Verb a Day #45 - to get in with

Notes & Transcript

To get involved with a person or group of people

1. (showing disapproval) "I'm a bit worried about Jeff. He's got in with a really strange group of people" - he's hanging around with a strange group of people, and it not good for him

2. (Making friends with people in order to persuade and influence them, because it's good for your career) If you want to get the best contracts you should get in with those guys. They know all the right people."

TRANSCRIPT
Hello everyone. This is Luke from Luke’s English Podcast. Today’s phrasal verb is ‘to get in with’, ‘to get in with’. Now, normally it’s ‘to get in with someone’ or ‘to get in with some people’, ‘to get in with a group’ and it’s got…, well, it’s got one meaning, really, but it can be used in several ways, okay? The one meaning is that you’ve become involved with the particular person or a particular group so, you get close to that person or get close to that group and you kind of join them and you do things together, you become a part of that group or, you know, you join with that person, okay? Now, the two ways this is used. One is in a slightly disapproving way because you think that the way someone is getting involved or getting in with the group is negative, like you think that this is a group of bad people and so, you think it’s a bad thing, alright? And the other one is that there’s an element of sort of persuasion involved, right. Now, that might be a bit confusing. Let me explain. First example of the disapproving use of ‘to get in with someone’ would be like this:

When I was a student at college in my second year I failed all my exams. Why? Well, I think it’s because I got in with the wrong crowd. I got in with the wrong crowd.

Okay? There was a kind of group of friends that I had. They weren’t very hard-working. In fact they spent a lot of their time just in a park outside college just missing classes and just fooling around and I got in with this group and, you know, they influenced me and I didn’t work very hard, okay? So, you know:

– Why did you fail your exams?
– Well, I think it’s probably because I got in with the wrong crowd.

Okay? You might say something like:

– I’m a bit worried about Jeff. He’s got in with rather a strange group of people. Yeah, they called themselves ‘The Biscuit Eaters’ and all they ever do is just kind of spend time in darkened rooms discussing and eating biscuits. I’m a bit worried about it. I think he’s getting in with the wrong crowd.

Okay? The other use of it in a persuasive sense would be to like to persuade a person or a group of people to be your friends because you think that they could help you in some way like, for example, you think they could help your career, okay? So, you’d say something like, you know:

– If you want to be elected as president of the club you need to get in with those people,
okay? For example:

– I suggest you get in with that lot because they know all the right people and can help you so, you should probably try and get in with those people,

okay? There you go. ‘To get in with someone’. That’s it for this one. Speak to you again tomorrow. By the way don’t forget to vote for me of course in the Macmillan Dictionary Awards. Today’s the last day of voting so I’m gonna shut up about it after this unless of course I win in which case, well, I’ll try not to go on about it too much but anyway I’ll be…, you know, I’ll stop talking about it soon. It’s normal in February because the competition always happens at this time of year but soon enough I’ll just stop talking about it, okay? Alright. Good. Speak to you again soon then. Bye.

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