Get vs. Give — What's the Difference?

Come to have (something); receive

Freely transfer the possession of (something) to (someone)

Succeed in attaining, achieving, or experiencing; obtain

Cause or allow (someone or something) to have or experience (something); provide with

Reach or cause to reach a specified state or condition

Carry out or perform (a specified action)

Come, go, or make progress eventually or with some difficulty

Yield as a product or result

See have

Concede (something) as valid or deserved in respect of (someone)

Catch or apprehend (someone)

State or put forward (information or argument)

Understand (an argument or the person making it)

Alter in shape under pressure rather than resist or break

Acquire (knowledge) by study; learn

Capacity to bend or alter in shape under pressure

An animal's offspring.

To make a present of

A person whom the speaker dislikes or despises.

To place in the hands of; pass

To come into possession or use of; receive

To deliver in exchange or recompense; pay

To meet with or incur

To let go for a price; sell

To go after and obtain

To administer

To go after and bring

To convey by a physical action

To purchase; buy

To inflict as punishment

To acquire as a result of action or effort

To bestow, especially officially; confer

To earn

To accord or tender to another

To accomplish or attain as a result of military action.

To put temporarily at the disposal of

To obtain by concession or request

To entrust to another, usually for a specified reason

To arrive at; reach

To communicate, convey, or offer for conveyance

To reach and board; catch

To endure the loss of; sacrifice

To succeed in communicating with, as by telephone

To devote or apply completely

To become affected with (an illness, for example) by infection or exposure; catch

To furnish or contribute

To be subjected to; undergo

To offer in good faith; pledge

To receive as retribution or punishment

To allot as a portion or share.

To sustain a specified injury to

To bestow (a name, for example).

To perceive or become aware of by one of the senses

To attribute (blame, for example) to someone; assign.

To gain or have understanding of

To award as due

To learn (a poem, for example) by heart; memorize.

To emit or utter

To find or reach by calculating

To submit for consideration, acceptance, or use

To procreate; beget

To proffer to another

To cause to become or be in a specified state or condition

To consent to engage (oneself) in sexual intercourse with another person.

To make ready; prepare

To perform for an audience

To cause to come or go

To present to view

To cause to move or leave

To offer as entertainment

To cause to undertake or perform; prevail on

To propose as a toast.

To take, especially by force; seize

To be a source of; afford

(Informal) To overcome or destroy

To cause to catch or be subject to (a disease or bodily condition)

To evoke an emotional response or reaction in

To guide or direct, as by persuasion or behavior. Used with an infinitive phrase

To annoy or irritate

To yield or produce

To present a difficult problem to; puzzle

To bring forth or bear

To take revenge on, especially to kill in revenge for a wrong.

To produce as a result of calculation

(Informal) To hit or strike

To manifest or show

(Baseball) To put out or strike out

To carry out (a physical movement)

To begin or start. Used with the present participle

To permit one to have or take

To have current possession of. Used in the present perfect form with the meaning of the present

To take an interest to the extent of

(Nonstandard) To have current possession of. Used in the past tense form with the meaning of the present

To make gifts or donations

To have as an obligation. Used in the present perfect form with the meaning of the present

To yield to physical force

(Nonstandard) To have as an obligation. Used in the past tense with the meaning of the present

To collapse from force or pressure

To become or grow to be

To yield to change

To be successful in coming or going

To afford access or a view; open

To be able or permitted

(Slang) To be in progress; happen

To be successful in becoming

Capacity or inclination to yield under pressure.

Used with the past participle of transitive verbs as a passive voice auxiliary

The quality or condition of resilience; springiness

To become drawn in, entangled, or involved

(ditransitive) To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere.

(Informal) To depart immediately

To transfer one's possession or holding of (something) to (someone).

To work for gain or profit; make money

To make a present or gift of.

Progeny; offspring

To pledge.

Chiefly British Slang git2.

To provide (something) to (someone), to allow or afford.

(Sports) A return, as in tennis, on a shot that seems impossible to reach.

To cause (a sensation or feeling) to exist in.

A document presented by a husband to his wife whereby a divorce is effected between them according to Jewish religious law.

To carry out (a physical interaction) with (something).

A divorce effected by a get.

To pass (something) into (someone's hand, etc.).

(ditransitive) To obtain; to acquire.

To cause (a disease or condition) in, or to transmit (a disease or condition) to.

(transitive) To receive.

(transitive) To provide, as, a service or a broadcast.

To have. See usage notes.

(ditransitive) To estimate or predict (a duration or probability) for (something).

(transitive) To fetch, bring, take.

(intransitive) To yield or collapse under pressure or force.

(copulative) To become, or cause oneself to become.

(intransitive) To lead (onto or into).

(transitive) To cause to become; to bring about.

To provide a view of.

(transitive) To cause to do.

To exhibit as a product or result; to produce; to yield.

(transitive) To cause to come or go or move.

To cause; to make; used with the infinitive.

To adopt, assume, arrive at, or progress towards (a certain position, location, state).

To cause (someone) to have; produce in (someone); effectuate.

(transitive) To cover (a certain distance) while travelling.

To allow or admit by way of supposition; to concede.

(intransitive) To begin (doing something or to do something).

To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.

(transitive) To take or catch (a scheduled transportation service).

To communicate or announce (advice, tidings, etc.); to pronounce or utter (an opinion, a judgment, a shout, etc.).

(transitive) To respond to (a telephone call, a doorbell, etc).

To grant power, permission, destiny, etc. (especially to a person); to allot; to allow.

To be able, be permitted, or have the opportunity (to do something desirable or ironically implied to be desirable).

(reflexive) To devote or apply (oneself).

To be told; be the recipient of (a question, comparison, opinion, etc.).

(obsolete) To become soft or moist.

(informal) To be. Used to form the passive of verbs.

(obsolete) To shed tears; to weep.

(transitive) To become ill with or catch (a disease).

(obsolete) To have a misgiving.

To catch out, trick successfully.

(slang) To be going on, to be occurring; what gives?

To perplex, stump.

The amount of bending that something undergoes when a force is applied to it; a tendency to yield under pressure; resilence.

(transitive) To find as an answer.

To bestow without receiving a return; to confer without compensation; to impart, as a possession; to grant, as authority or permission; to yield up or allow.

To bring to reckoning; to catch (as a criminal); to effect retribution.

To yield possesion of; to deliver over, as property, in exchange for something; to pay; as, we give the value of what we buy.

(transitive) To hear completely; catch.

To yield; to furnish; to produce; to emit; as, flint and steel give sparks.

(transitive) To getter.

To communicate or announce, as advice, tidings, etc.; to pronounce; to render or utter, as an opinion, a judgment, a sentence, a shout, etc.

To beget (of a father).

To grant power or license to; to permit; to allow; to license; to commission.

(archaic) To learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; sometimes with out.

To exhibit as a product or result; to produce; to show; as, the number of men, divided by the number of ships, gives four hundred to each ship.

Used with a personal pronoun to indicate that someone is being pretentious or grandiose.

To devote; to apply; used reflexively, to devote or apply one's self; as, the soldiers give themselves to plunder; also in this sense used very frequently in the past participle; as, the people are given to luxury and pleasure; the youth is given to study.

To go, to leave; to scram.

To set forth as a known quantity or a known relation, or as a premise from which to reason; - used principally in the passive form given.

(euphemism) To kill.

To allow or admit by way of supposition.

To make acquisitions; to gain; to profit.

To attribute; to assign; to adjudge.

(transitive) To measure.

To excite or cause to exist, as a sensation; as, to give offense; to give pleasure or pain.

(dated) Offspring.

To pledge; as, to give one's word.

Lineage.

To cause; to make; - with the infinitive; as, to give one to understand, to know, etc.

A difficult return or block of a shot.

To afford a view of; as, his window gave the park.

(informal) Something gained; an acquisition.

To give a gift or gifts.

A git.

To yield to force or pressure; to relax; to become less rigid; as, the earth gives under the feet.

(Judaism) A Jewish writ of divorce.

To become soft or moist.

Jet, the mineral.

To move; to recede.

Fashion; manner; custom.

To shed tears; to weep.

Artifice; contrivance.

To have a misgiving.

Offspring; progeny; as, the get of a stallion.

To open; to lead.

A divorce granted by a Rabbi in accordance with Jewish law; also, the document attesting to the divorce.

The elasticity of something that can be stretched and returns to its original length

To procure; to obtain; to gain possession of; to acquire; to earn; to obtain as a price or reward; to come by; to win, by almost any means; as, to get favor by kindness; to get wealth by industry and economy; to get land by purchase, etc.

Cause to have, in the abstract sense or physical sense;

Hence, with have and had, to come into or be in possession of; to have.

Be the cause or source of;

To beget; to procreate; to generate.

Transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody;

To obtain mental possession of; to learn; to commit to memory; to memorize; as to get a lesson; also with out; as, to get out one's Greek lesson.

Convey or reveal information;

To prevail on; to induce; to persuade.

Convey, as of a compliment, regards, attention, etc.; bestow;

To procure to be, or to cause to be in any state or condition; - with a following participle.

Organize or be responsible for;

To betake; to remove; - in a reflexive use.

Convey or communicate; of a smile, a look, a physical gesture;

To make acquisition; to gain; to profit; to receive accessions; to be increased.

Give as a present; make a gift of;

To arrive at, or bring one's self into, a state, condition, or position; to come to be; to become; - with a following adjective or past participle belonging to the subject of the verb; as, to get sober; to get awake; to get beaten; to get elected.

Bring about;

Come into the possession of something concrete or abstract;

Dedicate;

Enter or assume a certain state or condition;

Give or supply;

Cause to move; cause to be in a certain position or condition;

Tell or deposit (information) knowledge;

Receive a specified treatment (abstract);

Bring about;

Reach a destination; arrive by movement or progress;

Leave with; give temporarily;

Go or come after and bring or take back;

Emit or utter;

Of mental or physical states or experiences;

Endure the loss of;

Take vengeance on or get even;

Place into the hands or custody of;

Achieve a point or goal;

Give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause;

Cause to do; cause to act in a specified manner;

Give (as medicine);

Succeed in catching or seizing, especially after a chase;

Give or convey physically;

Come to have or undergo a change of (physical features and attributes);

Bestow;

Be stricken by an illness, fall victim to an illness;

Bestow, especially officially;

Communicate with a place or person; establish communication with, as if by telephone;

Move in order to make room for someone for something;

Give certain properties to something;

Give food to;

Move into a desired direction of discourse;

Contribute to some cause;

Grasp with the mind or develop an undersatnding of;

Break down, literally or metaphorically;

Attract and fix;

Estimate the duration or outcome of something;

Reach with a blow or hit in a particular spot;

Execute and deliver;

Reach by calculation;

Deliver in exchange or recompense;

Acquire as a result of some effort or action;

Afford access to;

Purchase;

Present to view;

Perceive by hearing;

Perform for an audience;

Suffer from the receipt of;

Be flexible under stress of physical force;

Receive as a retribution or punishment;

Propose;

Leave immediately; used usually in the imperative form;

Legal use: accord by verdict;

Reach and board;

Manifest or show;

Irritate;

Offer in good faith;

Evoke an emotional response;

Submit for consideration, judgment, or use;

Apprehend and reproduce accurately;

Guide or direct, as by behavior of persuasion;

In baseball: earn or achieve a base by being walked by the pitcher;

Allow to have or take;

Overcome or destroy;

Inflict as a punishment;

Be a mystery or bewildering to;

Occur;

Take the first step or steps in carrying out an action;

Consent to engage in sexual intercourse with a man;

Undergo (as of injuries and illnesses);

Proffer (a body part);

Make children;