This mini episode teaches you the useful phrase “Get it over with.”
Episode 224 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you all about the useful phrase “Get it over with.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello, everyone! This is Miso from South Korea. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 224 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
Today, I want to teach you a very common and useful expression that might seem a little strange. Have you ever heard anyone use this phrase: to “get it over with”? “Get it over with.” That’s get: g-e-t, it: i-t, over: o-v-e-r, with: w-i-t-h. Get it over with.
Sometimes you will hear this as “get (something—some noun or some activity) over with.” Sometimes you will hear “get it over with.” Sometimes instead of it in that phrase, you will hear some particular activity or situation or thing. “Get it over with,” or “get (something) over with.”
Before I tell you what this phrase means, I want to remind you that this is an idiom. And like other idioms, its meaning cannot really be predicted. You cannot just look at the parts and then understand what the entire phrase means. This one looks pretty strange. Get something over… with. Over with. That’s a little bit weird. You probably will not be able to understand this phrase by looking at the parts and trying to think of what it means. So, don’t be distracted by that. Don’t worry about that. It looks strange, but it means something pretty clear.
What it means to “get it over with” or to “get (something) over with” is to accomplish a task quickly. We use it when we are talking about a difficult or unpleasant or inconvenient task. And what we mean when we say, “Get it over with” is “Do that thing quickly, with no more delay. Stop waiting and do it.”
We say this when we think that the problem will just get worse if we don't deal with it now. Or we might also mean that waiting is so unpleasant—waiting and worrying about this problem is so bad—that you should not keep waiting. Instead, you should deal with the problem quickly.
Let me give you an example of the kind of situation where somebody might use this phrase, “get it over with.”
Let’s say that your friend has been having a bad toothache. One of her teeth hurts very much. This is a big problem for her. And this friend is very afraid of the dentist. She does not like going to the dentist.
So, she has a terrible toothache, and she is afraid of the dentist. And you say to your friend (because you care about her), you say, “I think you should just get it over with and go to the dentist.” I think you should just get it over with. What you are saying is “I think you should stop waiting. You should stop delaying. You should deal with this difficult or inconvenient or unpleasant problem quickly. Do it now. Stop waiting.”
That’s what it means to get it over with. It means to take care of a difficult problem or situation promptly. To do it quickly, without waiting any longer.
Before, I said that sometimes we say, “Get it over with,” and sometimes we say, “Get (something) over with.” In this example, with your friend who has the toothache, you could also say something like, “I think you need to get this appointment over with.” I think you need to get this appointment over with. In other words, you need to have your appointment soon, now, without waiting anymore.
And that is “get it over with,” a very common and very useful expression that I think you should.
Outro
We have reached the end of episode 224 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future podcasts—the same way Miso recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.