0

I've been watching the "13th" documentary and saw the sentence:

Accept 3 years in prison [without trial], or you go to trial and we'll get you 30 years.

My question is why the speaker uses "get" rather than "give", I mean why the sentence is not like:

Accept 3 years in prison, or you go to trial and we'll give you 30 years.

Does get means "give" here, or the meaning is another thing generally?

4
  • 2
    to get somebody something: to have that status conferred on them. Only judges can "give someone" thirty years. The lawyers, on the other hand, defend a client so the client can get (receive) some number of years from a judge. Get often means receive.
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 8, 2021 at 19:19
  • 1
    The part that sounds odd to me is the "you get to trial " rather than the"we'll get you 30 years", the usual form I would expect is "or go to trial and we'll ..." (quite possibly "or go to trial and we'll make sure you get thirty") Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 1:57
  • @SoronelHaetir that was my mistake, I revised it, my bad!
    – user141755
    Commented Sep 9, 2021 at 12:07
  • 1
    It may or may not have been in the original quote, but regardless, "get to trial" works for me as "get to" can mean "to reach a destination". The legal process is often a long and difficult journey, so using "get to" is quite appropriate. That said, so many "get"s next to each other can sound odd, and you might want to reword saying "get to trial" just to avoid the repetition. Commented Sep 10, 2021 at 0:45

1 Answer 1

0

The speaker is saying that they will make sure that the person gets 30 years. They can't give the 30 years, but if it goes to trial they will convince someone else to give the person 30 years.

The phrase 'get you' in this case means 'get for you'.

You must log in to answer this question.