AEE 2362: Get it Done or Have it Done?

Summary

All Ears English Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: AEE 2362: Get it Done or Have it Done?
Release Date: February 24, 2025
Hosts: Lindsay McMahon and Aubrey Carter
Podcast Description: All Ears English is dedicated to helping intermediate to advanced English learners improve their listening and speaking skills through engaging conversations about everyday topics, American culture, and language nuances.

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Introduction to the Episode

In Episode 2362 of the All Ears English Podcast, hosts Lindsay McMahon and Aubrey Carter delve into the subtle nuances between the phrases "get it done" and "have it done." This episode addresses a common confusion among English learners regarding when to appropriately use each phrase, providing clarity through detailed explanations and practical examples.

Listener's Question: Understanding "Get it Done" vs. "Have it Done"

The episode kicks off with Lindsay reading a listener question from Sophia:

Sophia: "I have a quick question about the phrases get it done and have it done. They both seem to mean completing something, but I'm not totally clear on when to use each one. Could you help clarify the difference and maybe share a few examples? Thank you so much. Best, Sophia."
(Timestamp: [03:44])

This question serves as the foundation for the episode's discussion, aiming to demystify the interchangeable nature of these phrases while highlighting their subtle differences in formality and usage.

Exploring "Get it Done"

Aubrey Carter starts by explaining that both phrases essentially mean completing a task, especially when outsourcing it to someone else. However, "get done" tends to be more informal.

Aubrey Carter: "Get done is more informal... quite a few people said they felt like 'have something done' felt very formal to them. They said, I always say 'get done.' I got to get this done."
(Timestamp: [04:41])

Lindsay McMahon concurs, emphasizing that "get done" is commonly used in everyday conversations:

Lindsay McMahon: "It's definitely more formal for sure, I might choose 'have done'..."
(Timestamp: [04:41])

Examples of "Get it Done"

The hosts provide practical examples to illustrate the usage of "get it done":

• Personal Care: "Get my hair done," "get my nails done," "get a facial."
• Automotive Services: "Get my oil changed," "get my brakes fixed."

Role Play Example:

Aubrey Carter: "I'm going to do a role play where it's something that I would not be able to do myself... I need to get my brake pads replaced."
(Timestamp: [09:05])
Lindsay McMahon: "I need to get my oil change."
(Timestamp: [06:09])

These scenarios demonstrate how "get it done" is seamlessly integrated into casual dialogue when discussing tasks delegated to others.

Exploring "Have it Done"

Shifting to "have it done," Aubrey Carter notes that this phrase carries a slightly more formal tone and is often preferred in professional or refined contexts.

Aubrey Carter: "I need to have my hair styled," "I need to have my nails done."
(Timestamp: [11:00])

Lindsay McMahon adds that using "have it done" can elevate the tone of the conversation:

Lindsay McMahon: "I need to have my nails done before my wedding."
(Timestamp: [07:30])

This phrase is ideal for settings where a more polished or sophisticated vocabulary is desired.

Comparative Insights and Regional Dialects

The discussion highlights that while both phrases are interchangeable, regional dialects might influence the preference for one over the other. In certain areas, "have it done" might be more prevalent, especially in regions where formal speech is customary.

Aubrey Carter: "Depending on someone's regional dialect, they might be much more used to hearing one or the other."
(Timestamp: [07:03])

Additional Vocabulary and Cultural Context

The episode introduces related vocabulary to enrich listeners' language skills. For instance, Aubrey mentions the term "lemon" in the context of unreliable cars:

Aubrey Carter: "Sometimes they just seem like they need to be fixed all the time because it was a newer car, but just things were going wrong all the time, but now we have a Volkswagen Jetta. Never a problem."
(Timestamp: [09:37])

She also shares a cultural anecdote about the word "lemon" in French, highlighting the importance of cultural context in language learning.

Aubrey Carter: "My dad's favorite joke... he found out that a car in France was a 'citroen,' which in English colloquially means a 'lemon,' but in French, lemon doesn't mean a junker car."
(Timestamp: [10:25])

Practical Application Through Role Plays

To solidify understanding, Lindsay and Aubrey engage in role-playing scenarios that showcase the correct usage of both phrases. These simulations help listeners visualize real-life conversations:

1. Car Maintenance Scenario:

   Lindsay McMahon: "I had to get my brake pads replaced, the brakes on my car started squeaking."
   (Timestamp: [09:18])
   Aubrey Carter: "I need to get that done."
   (Timestamp: [09:22])

2. Household Chores Scenario:

   Lindsay McMahon: "I just got our windows cleaned. It was high time."
   (Timestamp: [07:47])
   Aubrey Carter: "Oh, I need to have that done."
   (Timestamp: [07:49])

These examples illustrate how both phrases can be interchanged without altering the sentence's meaning, providing flexibility in expression.

Key Takeaways

1. Interchangeability: Both "get it done" and "have it done" convey the completion of a task, typically performed by someone else.
2. Formality Levels: "Get it done" is more informal and commonly used in everyday conversations, while "have it done" carries a slightly more formal tone.
3. Regional Preferences: Usage may vary based on regional dialects, with some areas favoring one phrase over the other.
4. Practical Usage: Understanding these nuances enhances conversational fluency and allows learners to adjust their language based on the context.

Lindsay McMahon: "You really can't go wrong when you interchange them for the most part."
(Timestamp: [08:08])

Conclusion

Episode 2362 of the All Ears English Podcast effectively demystifies the subtle differences between "get it done" and "have it done," empowering English learners to use these phrases confidently and appropriately. Through engaging discussions, practical examples, and relatable role-plays, hosts Lindsay McMahon and Aubrey Carter provide valuable insights that enhance listeners' understanding and usage of these common English expressions.

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Join the Conversation!
If you enjoyed this episode and want to improve your American English skills, subscribe to the All Ears English Podcast. For more resources and to take a quick English level quiz, visit allearsenglish.com.

Transcript

[Aubrey Carter]

This is an Allers English podcast. Episode 2362 get it done or have it done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection, with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, usa. And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com subscribe when someone performs a service for you, should you say have it done or get it done? Find out about a tiny nuanced difference between the two. Today.

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[Lindsey McMahon]

Hello, Aubry. What's shaking?

[Aubrey Carter]

Not too much. How are you? Good.

[Lindsey McMahon]

We're recording today on a Friday and it's sunny out, so I'm very excited to be done with work and get outside. But I do have a question for you, Aubry. You ready?

[Aubrey Carter]

Okay. Yes.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Do you get your hair or your nails done often? Are you always in the salon getting a mani, pedi and a, you know.

[Aubrey Carter]

No, absolutely not. I can't stand a pedicure because my feet are too ticklish. Like, don't touch my feet. Expensive. My daughter put on like, glue. Like le. I don't know, press on nails. And she's 10. She couldn't tie her shoes. She couldn't hold a pencil. I'm like, you have to take these off. They're just impractical.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, that's pretty funny. No. I also am not a big salon goer. Maybe a few times a year, max, for the hair. And that's it. Yeah. So.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. And haircuts are expensive. In fact, my husband just this morning was cutting his hair with a flowbee. I don't know if you've heard of that. It's like a vacuum that attaches to hair cutting tools.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Wow. That's.

[Aubrey Carter]

And so he's like, sort of vacuums up the hair as it cuts. It's actually kind of amazing. I'm curious if any of our listeners use a flowy, But I want to.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Know, did he take like a flowy training course? You know, did he take a course to know how to use the flowy properly? Because it feels like I would still mess things up even though I have.

[Aubrey Carter]

Like, we could, you know, have it be a disaster. He's been using it for years. He's probably had it for 20 years. So it's wow.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Think about how much money he saved over the years.

[Aubrey Carter]

I know, right? He. He probably did watch a tutorial or two. There were definitely instructions, and I think there was a learning curve. The first couple of times, he maybe had to go to a barber to have him clean it up after.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right. I think the stakes are usually lower for guys. You could just kind of cut it a little.

[Aubrey Carter]

Shave my head. Just shave it off. We'll start over.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right? Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah.

[Lindsey McMahon]

So I love that we started off the the episode today with get. I asked you, do you get your hair or nails done often? So talking about getting something done or having something done.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. Yes. We got a great question about this, and we're going to share details about this today with some fun examples. So let's get into this.

[Lindsey McMahon]

All right, I'm going to read the listener question, but before I read our question from Sophia, I want to remind our listeners, guys, hit the follow button right now to make sure you get five episodes a week of Allers English.

[Aubrey Carter]

All right, Absolutely.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Here it is. How are you? I'm Sophia. I just want to say thanks for answering my questions. I often can't find answers online, so your insights are really helpful. I have a quick question about the phrases get it done and have it done. They both seem to mean completing something, but I'm not totally clear on when to use each one. Could you help clarify the difference and maybe share a few examples? Thank you so much. Best, Sophia. That is a great question, Aubrey.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes, it is a really good question. These have the same meaning. They're both used to talk about something we can't do for ourselves, something we have to have or get someone else to do for us. But get done is more informal. And I asked a few people what they use more and where I live, at least in this regional dialect, quite a few people said they thought they felt like have something done felt very formal to them. They said, I always say get done. I got to get this done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, I agree. I think it's definitely more formal for sure, I might choose. Yeah. But let's go. Let's explore. Let's explore.

[Aubrey Carter]

So, yeah, we'll dive into both with examples and kind of share if one feels often it's definitely interchangeable. Don't stress about this too much. They mean the same thing. People will understand you. But get often. The. The verb get often makes something informal. All of the different verbs we. We make with get are going to be more informal and we use.

[Lindsey McMahon]

And there are so many. And it's probably time for another episode on that. Right? Or maybe to cover get verbs that we haven't done yet on this show. I'm sure that we. We'll come to that another day. So first one. So get done. Right. So paying for a service or having something done for you. All right. For example, get my hair, my hair, my hairs, my hair done. Get my nails done.

[Aubrey Carter]

Waxing, maybe facials. All of these things that usually people don't do them for themselves. They'll say, I, I get it done at a salon. Right. Or lashes, I need to get my lashes done. A lot of people use like I. I'm saying false lashes, but there's another word. Artificial lashes, eyelashes, my brows wax, Something like that will either will say, I need to get it done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes, yes, exactly. Let's do a little mini role play here. So go for it.

[Aubrey Carter]

Aubry, when did you last get your oil changed?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Oof, it's been a while. I probably need to get that done. All right. So I need to get my oil change. Well, I need to get my oil changed.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, exactly right. So often this will come up as a response if someone's asking you, you know, need to get blank done, then when you respond, oh, I need to get it done. I need to get that done. Right, yes. And so often things that a mechanic would do for your car, you know, things a doctor would need to do for you, anything that you can't do for yourself, that's when we use these phrasal verbs.

[Lindsey McMahon]

But the key difference. I need to. Sometimes you might actually be saying I. If we talk about the active voice. I actually need to get something done to take action and complete something myself.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, that's true. Right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Another meaning. Yeah.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes, exactly. That's a good point. If, say, I need to get my homework done, I need to get this work done, then that's different. That's a whole different construction.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right. And then it becomes very different from number two, which is to have something done. Someone does it for you. Today we're talking about when someone does something for us. Right, Aubrey?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. And this is a little more formal. Not tons, but depending on someone's regional dialect, they might be much more used to hearing one or the other.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. So have something done. I. I actually do agree that it's a little more formal. I would say that too, if I'm kind of trying to, I don't know, sound more fancy. I'm describing a fancier event. I might swap in, have my nails done before my wedding. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Sound a little more posh, but, yeah, they are very interchangeable. You could say, you know, oh, I need to have my trees trimmed. I need to have that done. Right. It does have the same meaning.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. So in a role play. You ready? Yeah, we go for the role play. All right. Just got our windows cleaned. It was high time.

[Aubrey Carter]

Oh, yeah, I need to have that done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. So you can see how it's real interchangeable here.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, Exactly. For that, you could definitely say, I need to get that done. I need to, you know. But either way, you're meaning I need to have someone else do that. I'm not cleaning my windows.

[Lindsey McMahon]

I think we're really just showing our listeners that you're not cleaning your own windows. Right. We're just showing our listeners they have two options here.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, Exactly.

[Lindsey McMahon]

You really can't go wrong when you interchange them for the most part. Okay.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

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[Aubrey Carter]

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[Lindsey McMahon]

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[Aubrey Carter]

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[Lindsey McMahon]

Okay, Aubry, time for a role play. So here we are discussing our cars.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. I'm like, I'm going to do a role play where it's something that I would not be able to do myself. I know some of you out there are maybe mechanics or just are really good at working on your car and you maybe would say, I need to do this, I need it. But for me, I would say I need to get these things done right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Because, yeah, this is all about having someone else do something for us.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. It's not my expertise, you understand?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Me neither. Me neither. This is a fitting role play for me too. Yes. I had to get my brake pads replaced, the brakes on my car head started Squeaking.

[Aubrey Carter]

Oh, mine are squeaking too. I need to get that done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Seems like there's always something to fix.

[Aubrey Carter]

For sure. I had to have my alternator worked on last week.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yikes. Hopefully I don't need to have that done. That's so true about cars. Especially if you have an expensive car that's really expensive to fix, you're always bringing it in.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. That happened with me at. We bought a Volkswagen Passat, and I don't know if it was a lemon. We say that for cars that just seem like they need to be fixed all the time because it was a newer car, but just things were going wrong all the time, but now we have a Volkswagen Jetta. Never a problem. So you just. Sometimes you just never know.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, sometimes it's not. Sometimes I find that certain car. I thought you were going to say the Volkswagen, just tended to be expensive, you know, or breaking down a lot, but I think sometimes it's just the car. And a lemon is a great bonus word for today, by the way. Right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. I don't know if I've mentioned this on the podcast, but my dad's favorite joke, when we were learning French and we went to France, he found out that a car in France was a. Which means lemon in English. And he's like, I can't believe they named this car Lemon. But of course, in French, lemon doesn't mean a junkie car.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, I love that. That is so funny. That's why we need cultural context when we translate ads for cars and things like that.

[Aubrey Carter]

Definitely.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Oh, gosh, that's funny. So let's go through this here. So you. You. I said I had to get my bra. I had to get my brake pads replaced. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Meaning you weren't going to do it or you didn't do it yourself. Someone did it for you.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. And then you said, oh, mine are squeaking too. I need to get that done. Right. Again, going for the get.

[Aubrey Carter]

Get something done. We could say, I need to have that done, but this is a little more informal, a little more conversational. Oh, I gotta get that done.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yep. Get makes everything more casual. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

And then I said, oh, I had to have my alternator worked on.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. Okay. And then I said, yikes. Meaning, ooh. Right. Just reacting.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. But a negative kind of like. That's not great.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. And then I said, oh, hopefully I don't need to have that done. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. And so you could say, hopefully, I don't need to get that done. Have that done. Both interchangeable. Really? They both just Mean something I need to have someone else do for me.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. I love it. So what's our takeaway for today? I mean I love the fact that these are, you know, both about having people do something for us and they are, are interchangeable. So we have options but our listeners also have the option to up level. If you're talking about a very fancy, a fancier scenario, you do have that chance to use have, right? You have that option. Yeah.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. I need to have my hair styled, I need to have my nails done. Does sound just a little bit fancier, a little bit less informal.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. Anything else to leave our listeners with today?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah, I think, you know, this is a fun way to connect, really chatting about thing like this, conversation about our car, things that you need to get done, things you need have to have done. Whichever phrasal verb you use. Right. Strike up a conversation about something like this.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. I love it. Good stuff. Guys. Hit the follow button right here on all ears English and we'll see you soon. All right, awesome.

[Aubrey Carter]

See you next time.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Take care, Aubrey. Bye bye. Thanks for listening to all ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluencyscore and if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

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