English Language Learners Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for speakers of other languages learning English. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In the novel I'm reading there's a sentence I don't understand.
A power outage had darkened most of the city, and he had driven over to bring her a battery-powered space heater.
“It’ll get down into the thirties tonight”, he said, almost apologetically, when she opened the door.
What's the meaning of "get down", here in this context?
The outdoor temperature will fall to the stated level overnight.
By the sounds of it, the speaker is using the Fahrenheit temperature scale, in which the freezing point of water is 32°F.
So, It here is the weather, get down indicates that the weather is expected to fall to the specified point, and the thirties indicates near-freezing temperatures.
Do you know what "it" refers to in that sentence? "It" is the temperature. Is this clearer: "The temperature will get down into the thirties tonight"?
It means the temperature will drop until it has reached somewhere between 30 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit.
