get started

M56   Sat Sep 16, 2006 6:45 am GMT
"Get started! means "begin". They are synonyms.
Robin   Sat Sep 16, 2006 1:38 pm GMT
<<<<<<<Sorry. I should have written as below.

If the "started" is a transitive participle like "killed" in "get killed", we should suppose there should be any agent who urges us to start the action : "ourselves" in this case. If it is an intransitive participle like "fled" in "I got fled", we need not to suppose such an agent. This difference may not matter to you but does to me who is learning English using the brain. >>>>>>

I have had a quick look at your example:

"I got fled"

'I got fled', is an expression that simply does not appear in Spoken or Written English.

'I got fed' is a proper expression, even if it is not very elegant.

I think there is a problem with the tense.

It should be: I was fed.

Even that sounds wrong. It makes more sense in a sentence like:

I was force fed

fed (fd)
v.
Past tense and past participle of feed.

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v., fled (flĕd), fleeĀ·ing, flees.

v.intr.
To run away, as from trouble or danger: fled from the house into the night

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"I got fled"

Would be better as:

I fled
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Sometimes it is helpful to tease out the more subtle distinctions in English. I believe that good grammar can be used to reduce ambiguity. On the other hand, people will sometimes break the rules and introduce new combinations of words in order to introduce new ideas.

I personally think that it is unhelpful, offensive, and generally obnoxious to use swear words in 'posts'.

How about this lyric from Jimi Hendix. (and the wind cries Mary)

"You can hear happiness staggering on down the street"

That describes someone walking home rather drunk but in a good mood.


After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red and the wind whispers mary

A broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind it cries mary

The traffic lights they turn of blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sails downstream cause the life that lived is is dead
And the wind screams mary

Will the wind ever remember the names it has blown in the past
And with this crutch its old age and its wisdom
It whispers no this will be the last
And the wind cries mary