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What about get? Get means whatever you want!
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American English uses get a bit more than British English, although young people here ( my daughter for example) have started using it instead of have. e.g. 'Can I get...?' when ordering in a restaurant rather than 'May I have...?'
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Davina wrote:
American English uses get a bit more than British English, although young people here ( my daughter for example) have started using it instead of have. e.g. 'Can I get...?' when ordering in a restaurant rather than 'May I have...?'
Oh yes - the become/get thing!
I always cringe at customers e.g. in a bakery when they order - not: "May/Can I have/get... - but: "I get a bread." As the seller, I would tell them: "No, you won't get a bread unless I'm so kind as to give it to you..."
Btw, there's the famous German/English exchange between "get" and "become". The German verb "bekommen" means "get" and the English "become" means "get" in German.
("Waiter - may I become a beefsteak?" - "If you wish...")
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Get and become always is difficult for me. I get a cold, but I become sick? Or do I get sick?
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Not really get sick as the sick bit is not a noun like a cold is a noun (I think that's why anyway, never really having ever thought about it before). So someone can say phrases like:
I am sick. I'm sick.
You will be sick. You'll be sick. (Often said to children who have eaten too many sweets).
I think I am going to be sick.
Also the phrase: sickening for something can be used e.g. I think I am sickening for something. I really don't feel well.
Sick can also mean being really fed-up, tired, upset or repelled with something e.g. I am sick of your behaviour. They are sick of the way they are treated at work. Similar is the use of sicken e.g. You sicken me. This is sickening.
I bet you wish you had never mentioned this now! Lol! Sickening isn't it.
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Now don't tell me German's difficult to learn.
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Ah! It's your grammar that's difficult.
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Agreed. And in English it's the countless words expressing slightly different nuances of something and the quirky pronunciation. So let's call it a draw, shall we?
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So I never get sick? Something I have to erase from my harddisk then....