How to Talk About a Hard Week in English with Four Get Phrases

A friend you have not seen for a week asks, “So, how did it all go?” You have plenty to say, and you say it in the plainest words you know: “It was a hard week. I felt bad after my presentation. I worked with a new person. I stopped my project for two days. Friday was very long, but it is finished now.”

Every sentence is correct, and the answer still sounds like notes on a whiteboard. Your friend has to guess which parts matter: whether the new person was a problem, whether you are still upset about the presentation, whether the project is back on track. Four small phrases with get can answer those questions inside the sentences themselves. They are get over, get along with, get back to and get through. This lesson shows what each one tells your listener, where its small word belongs, and how to keep two of them from being swapped.

One week, four jobs

Each phrase takes one piece of your plain answer and gives it a clearer shape.

What you want to say	The phrase	A sentence to start from
A bad feeling is getting weaker	get over	It took me a while to get over the disappointment.
A relationship is friendly or workable	get along with	We get along well now.
You returned to something you had stopped	get back to	I finally got back to it yesterday.
You managed a hard stretch to its end	get through	We got through it.

These phrases have other meanings too. The hosts of the English Practice Daily episode say so at the start, and then choose one very useful everyday job for each phrase. This page does the same, so you will not find a full dictionary entry below.

Get over: a feeling gets weaker

Something hard happens and it affects you. Later the effect is smaller. That is the picture behind get over. The thing after it is usually the feeling, or whatever caused it, that stayed with you:

• It took me a while to get over the disappointment.
• I’m starting to get over it. (The feeling is not as strong now.)
• It took me two days to get over how embarrassed I felt.

What the sentence tells your friend is small but useful: something affected you, and you are better now. It says nothing about whether the event was easy or whether you finished anything.

That is exactly why Emily’s opening line in the episode lands so strangely. She wants to say she worked well with a new coworker, but I got over my new coworker really quickly makes the coworker sound like something she had to recover from.

Editorial note (not from the podcast): in other contexts, get over someone can mean to stop having romantic feelings for them. That is one more reason why the sentence makes a listener blink, and a reason to keep get over for feelings and setbacks.

Get along with: the small word and the modest claim

Get along with describes a relationship that works. The relationship can be friendly or just workable. It does not say you are close friends, and that modesty is useful: you can say I get along with Sam about a person you only know from work.

• I get along with Sam.
• We get along well now. We just needed to understand how each other works.
• We didn’t get along at first, but things are much easier now.

The last one packs a small story into a single sentence, a rough start followed by an easier present, and it is a handy pattern whenever a relationship has changed.

Watch the small word, because it is the first thing to fall out when you speak quickly. I get along my manager sounds unfinished; the person follows with, as in I get along with my manager.

Get back to: the thing you stopped

You stopped something, perhaps for a busy few days, and now you are starting again. Get back to names the thing you return to, and the to stays in the sentence:

• I’m getting back to the design today.
• I got back to the report this morning.
• get back to the project, get back to work, get back to studying

After to you can put a thing (the project) or an activity with -ing (studying, practicing English). The usual slip is After the holiday, I got back my English practice, which sounds as if someone handed you an object. Say I got back to my English practice or I got back to practicing English, and the return is clear.

Editorial note (not from the podcast): you may also hear I’ll get back to you, which means “I will reply to you later”. The chunk is the same, but the job is different. In this lesson, get back to is about returning to an activity.

Get through: reaching the end of something hard

A rehearsal, a three-hour class or a meeting that ran long is difficult, and you reach the end of it. That is get through. In the episode, Emily describes it as managing to complete something even though it was difficult:

• We got through the final rehearsal.
• We got through the last two days.
• Long, but we got through it.

The same chunk works for a question to someone else. If you want to know whether a colleague worked through a report and finished it, ask Have you got through the report yet? or, more simply, Have you finished the report? Asking Have you got over the report yet? sounds odd, because got over is not about finishing.

The same event, two jobs

Learners reach for the wrong phrase here because get over and get through often turn up around the same hard thing. The episode has one sentence that pulls them apart:

I got through the difficult presentation, but it took me two days to get over how embarrassed I felt.

The first half is about the presentation reaching its end, and the second half is about the feeling that lingered afterwards.

Of course you will meet sentences where either phrase is possible. I got through the disappointment can work in some contexts, but if your point is that the disappointment no longer affects you strongly, I got over the disappointment is clearer. In the same way, I got over the three-hour meeting is odd when you mean you managed to finish it, and I got through the three-hour meeting says exactly that. The episode calls this a useful communication distinction, not a universal law, which is a good way to hold it: ask whether your listener needs to hear about the ending or about the recovery.

Finishing together is not the same as getting along

Get through and get along with often show up in the same story, which tempts listeners to join them. In the episode, Paul does exactly that in the role-play after a course:

Paul: So because you got through the course, you and Nina must be close friends now.

Emily: Not necessarily. We got through the course together, and we get along well, but that does not mean we are close friends.

The client-meeting scene makes the same point with a harder case. Paul asks whether Emily and her teammate Jordan are getting along well now, and she answers Not exactly. We got through the meeting together, but we’re still learning how to work together. Completing a hard meeting is one fact and having an easy working relationship is another, so when both matter, give them as two pieces, first what you finished and then how the relationship stands.

Past, now, and still in progress

A catch-up chat jumps between past and present, and all four phrases follow the usual pattern of get. Finished things take got: I got over it, We got along, I got back to the project, We got through the week. Something still changing takes getting, as in I’m getting over it, We’re getting along better or I’m getting back to the reports now. A relationship that is simply good now takes the base form: We get along well. Choose the tense to show where you are in the story, but pick the phrase by its meaning first.

A hard week, told in order

Written for this page, not from the podcast. Mina meets Tomás after his exam week. Each of Tomás’s answers is only as long as the question needs, and the phrases arrive when the questions ask for them.

Mina: So how did the exam week go?

Tomás: Long. I did badly on the first paper, and it took me until Wednesday to get over it.

Mina: And your study group? You were nervous about working with Aiko.

Tomás: We get along fine, actually. We disagreed about the schedule at first, but we sorted it out.

Mina: Did you keep up your running?

Tomás: I stopped for four days. I got back to it on Thursday morning, only twenty minutes, but it felt good.

Mina: And the last exam?

Tomás: I got through it, and then I slept until noon. I’m still tired.

Read it again and mark the four phrases, then look at what follows each one: until Wednesday, we disagreed about the schedule, only twenty minutes, I slept until noon. The phrase tells your friend which job the sentence is doing, and the small detail turns it into a story. In a real chat you may well use only one or two of them, since the hosts point out that forcing every target phrase into every answer would sound like an exercise.

Your turn: the hard week

Written for this page, not from the podcast.

Which phrase does each sentence need?

Choose get over, get along with, get back to or get through, in the right form.

1. The first week was lonely, but I ____ my roommate much better now.
2. I stopped painting in March, and I finally ____ it last weekend.
3. The exam was awful, but we ____ it by sharing notes.
4. It took me three days to ____ the bad news.
5. I ____ my sister; we almost never argue.
6. Last month was busy, but I ____ the busiest week by working early in the morning.

Answers

1. get along with (I get along with my roommate much better now works; keep with)
2. got back to
3. got through
4. get over
5. get along with
6. got through

Repair the small word or the phrase

Each sentence has one problem. Write a better version.

1. I get along my neighbor.
2. I got back my guitar lessons after the holiday.
3. We got over the long meeting. (You mean you finished it.)
4. I got through how embarrassed I felt. (You mean the feeling faded.)
5. Have you got over the report? (You mean finished.)

Answers

1. I get along with my neighbor.
2. I got back to my guitar lessons after the holiday. / I got back to practicing guitar after the holiday.
3. We got through the long meeting.
4. I got over how embarrassed I felt.
5. Have you got through the report? / Have you finished the report?

What can your friend conclude?

You say: “We got through the project together.” Which conclusions are safe?

a. You finished the project.
b. You and the other person get along well.
c. You and the other person are close friends.

Answer

Only (a). Finishing something together does not automatically describe the relationship. If (b) is true, say it as a second sentence: “We got through the project together, and we get along well.”

Write your four sentences

Think of a real or imagined busy week. Fill in the four frames at the end of this page. Say them aloud, then retry with fewer details so the answer is about as long as one friendly reply, not a report. Check your sentences against this model:

One possible answer

“My first week at the new job was tiring, but I’m getting over it. I get along with my team, even though we didn’t at first. I stopped my evening course for two weeks, and I got back to it on Monday. The final training day was hard, but we got through it.” Your four sentences will differ from this model, as they should. What matters is that your friend could tell which sentence is about a feeling, which about a person, which about an activity and which about a hard stretch.

When one phrase is not the whole answer

Can I say “I got through the disappointment”?

Sometimes. If you mean you managed a difficult time and reached the end, it can work. If you want your friend to hear that the feeling no longer affects you strongly, I got over the disappointment is clearer.

Do I need all four in one answer?

No. Choose the ones your friend’s question is really asking about. If someone only asks about the new teammate, get along with is enough, and the rest of the week can stay unsaid.

Is a phrase always better than a plain verb?

No. Plain English is often excellent, and these phrases add options rather than replacing every simple verb. I recovered from the bad result is fine; in a casual catch-up conversation, It took me a while to get over the bad result is another natural choice. Pick the one that fits the moment.

Four sentences to fill in

• It took me ____ to get over ____.
• I get along with ____, even though / because ____.
• I got back to ____ on ____.
• We got through ____ by ____.

Hear it in a real conversation

Want to hear Paul and Emily follow the four phrases through a whole catch-up conversation, including a slip in the first minute and a role-play after a difficult client meeting? Listen to the episode and read the transcript in Get Over, Get Along, Get Back and Get Through.