Page 114 - Basic English Usage

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144 get and go: movement

Get is used for the end of a movement — the arrival.
Gois used for the whole movement. Compare:
| go to work by car and Lucy goes by train. _| usually get there first.
| went to Bristol yesterday. _! got to Bristo! at about eight o'clock.
We often use gef when there is some difficulty in arriving.
lt wasn't easy to get through the crowd.
| don’t know how we’re going to get over the river.
Can you tell me how to get to the police station?

145 go: been and gone

If somebody has gone to a place, he or she is there now, or on the way.
‘Is Lucy here?’ ‘No, she’s gone to London.’
\f somebody has been to a place, he or she has travelled there and
come back.
I've been to London six times this week.
Have you ever been to Northern Ireland?
Beenis also used to mean ‘come (and gone away again)’.
She’s been to see us twice since Christmas.

We can use be with gone to say that something has disappeared, or that
there is no more.
Is the butter all gone? When! came back my car was gone.

146 go meaning ‘become’

We use go to mean ‘become’ before some adjectives.

This happens with colour words.
Leaves go brown in autumn.
People go red, pale or white with anger, biue with cold; green with
seasickness.
If you faint, everything goes black.
In a formal style, we use turn instead of goin these cases.

We use go with some other adjectives to talk about things changing for
the worse. Some common expressions:
People go mad, crazy, deaf, blind, grey, bald.
Machines go wrong, iron goes rusty, meat goes bad, milk goes sour,
bread goes stale.