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If you want to get to where you want to get, you have to work hard.

If you want to get to where you want to go, you have to work hard.

If you want to get where you want to get, you have to work hard.

Are all the above sentences grammatically correct and usable? Can we omit the highlighted to, like has been done in the third sentence. Is there a difference between using get and go in the given sentences.

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We can say either:

get to where

get where

but with an actual place or location, to cannot be dropped:

get to London

get to class

go expresses directional motion (or figuratively, some progress).

get expresses an achieved state (in locative contexts, a destination, a being-at-place).

Where do you want to go?

In which direction, towards which destination, do you want to go?

Where do you want to get?

Where do you want to be? What is your destination or goal?

The two are often interchangeable, but there are times when their nuanced difference might apply. A taxi driver is more likely to ask "Where do you want to go?" because he must take you to your destination and travel the route. If you tell a person you're lost, and don't know where you are, a person helping you out might want to know "Where do you want to get?" That is, tell me where you want to be and I can help you get there.

In my own dialect, these two questions might very well have nearly identical meaning

Where do you wanna get?

Where do you wanna go?

but we can put a special emphasis on the word get

Where do you wanna get?

to mean "Just tell me your destination. I wasn't asking about the route you had in mind."

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  • Let's say we;re talking about a real place. "Can you help me get to where I need to get (to)." If we're talking about a real place, do we use the to at the end of the sentence too? Or is that inconsequential? Feb 21, 2018 at 1:58
  • where is not a "real place" in the sense I meant. I meant an explicitly mentioned place such as "to London" or "to class" as I thought my examples clearly showed.
    – TimR
    Feb 21, 2018 at 10:49
  • Oh. I thought you meant in constructions where WHERE is not a real place, like when you're talking about life ''You won't get where you want to get in life if you don't work hard.", where WHERE is not a real place, but a point or level one wants to get to or get on. Thank you. :) Feb 21, 2018 at 11:34

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