Improve your listening and writing skills by filling in the blanks in the song lyrics. These activities are designed for Beginners and Intermediates to learn new vocabulary related to a specific topic in a quick and fun way.
For this week’s lyrics we bring you Mercy by the Welsh singer, songwriter and actress Aimee Anne Duffy. She is known artistically as Duffy. Her debut album in 2008 included the song Mercy, which was a huge international success.
Exercise
Fill in the missing words: You – mercy – knees – well – release – hand – games- got – better – spell – stay – understand – yeah – . ⇩
This activity is case sensitive so make sure to use capital letters when needed.
Grammar
To get
To get is a very common irregular verb: get, got, gotten. We use get mostly to mean acquire, receive, or become.
We can also use to get in a passive way. We use this construction often when we talk about negative events:
My car got stuck in the mud.
Did your grandmother’s house get damaged during the storm?
My phone got stolen while I was distracted.
Did you hear? Lacey’s husband finally got promoted!
We sometimes use a reflexive pronoun with the passive to get.
This suggests the subject was at least partly responsible for what happened:
I got myself injured because I wasn’t paying attention while lifting weights.
Did you get yourself fired again, Billy? Oh, why can’t you keep a job?
We can use to get + object + verb + ed to mean to cause something to happen:
Do you want me to get your printer repaired when I go by the office?
I’m getting my house cleaned by a maid this weekend.
We use to get + object + infinitive/verb + ing to mean to cause or persuade something to happen. This structure is similar to other forms of to get:
The boss got me to work an extra shift, although I didn’t want to.
Can you help me get this printer working?
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