Phrasal Verbs with Over — Get Over, Go Over, Come Over, Stay Over and More Explained Naturally
Welcome to Episode 12 of No Pressure English — a podcast for intermediate and advanced English learners. In this episode, we dive into one of the most useful and commonly confused areas of English — phrasal verbs with “over.” From getting over a breakup to going over your work, staying over at a friend’s house or coming over for a visit — these expressions appear constantly in real spoken English. We break them down in a simple, natural way using everyday examples so you can start using them with confidence.
In this episode of No Pressure English:
- Get over — recovering from something or overcoming a challenge
- Go over — reviewing or examining something carefully
- Come over / Go over — visiting someone at their home
- Stay over — staying the night at someone’s place
- Bonus phrase: Get by — managing with what you have
- How phrasal verbs appear naturally in everyday conversation
- The power of repetition and learning vocabulary in context
- How to build fluency without memorising endless lists
Here is this episode’s free transcript:
Episode 12: Phrasal Verbs with “Over”
Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. This podcast is for intermediate and advanced learners. We try to keep the language natural on this podcast and highly recommend repetition.
Whether it’s with this podcast, by availing of the free transcript in the description, or in general with any other material that you check out, repetition is what makes us improve, and finding the beauty in repetition is the key to progress. That said, today we’re going to look at some phrasal verbs with “over.” We’re going to look at three phrasal verbs, maybe more, with the preposition “over.”
Some of these definitions are a little bit similar. I’m going to use the word “over” a hell of a lot in this episode, so bear with me, okay? Stay with me. It’s okay. We’ll get through this together.
So we’ll start with number one: to get over something.
And this means to overcome something or to kind of get through it or get to the other side. See, “get through”—now I’m using a phrasal verb to explain another phrasal verb. This is where the complications kick in, guys. Kick in, okay? They begin – another phrasal verb.
Anyway, let’s go back. So to get over something, yeah, means you overcome the feeling, or you get past the feeling or the situation. It’s the process of getting to the other side, to the end of a feeling or a situation. So you get over it, okay? You arrive at the other side.
Emotionally speaking, to get over a breakup would be a good example. It took Elena six months to get over her breakup with Marco, okay? She was really in love, and then they broke up unexpectedly. She felt terribly sad at first, so it took her some time to get over it—to overcome her negative feelings, to get some closure, some finality.
Okay, so that’s one example: to get over something. But we can get over many things, okay? Usually, it’s related to something negative or challenging. It can be minor, or it could be major.
So if someone that is close to us passes away—if they die—we are in a state of grief. We are really, really sad about their passing. And that’s a situation we may never get over fully. But I suppose when we say to get over something that’s that extreme, we just mean that we can cherish the good memories and we can still miss them, okay? We can appreciate the good times and still miss the person, but we can kind of move past that or move on with our lives.
Incidentally, a really nice phrasal verb that we also use is to get by, okay? And to get by might be when you’re in a really crap situation, a bad situation, and you’re just surviving, or you’re just functioning. You’re just at your baseline. You’re continuing to live, okay? That sounds terribly sad, but it’s a good phrasal verb. To get by, okay? “I’m getting by,” okay? Maybe things aren’t great, maybe they’re not terrible either, but you know, I’m just—I’m surviving. I’m getting by.
In Ireland, we are very pessimistic with our language, so sometimes we say “I’m getting by,” but things might be actually quite good, okay?
So, to get over—I’ve just used a really serious example, you know, someone passing away. That’s something we might never get over. A breakup—again, a very serious, it’s a very serious situation, a very sad situation. Some people don’t get over breakups either, but most of the time, people can at some point get over something like that.
So we also use it for kind of lighter things, minor things, okay? So I’m going to give a couple of examples. So we could use it for a small setback at work. So, maybe we encounter a problem, it takes time to resolve, but then we get over it, okay? Or we get past it.
So it could be that a member of your team leaves and they were an integral part of the team, and then you have to learn how to do more tasks. So, you know, Michael left the team; he got a promotion. It took some time, but we got over it, you know, we learned how to manage without him.
It could also be in a negative situation, such as if you miss out on a promotion, or if you don’t get a promotion. Maybe you are one of the candidates; you know, you might say, “Oh Marco, he didn’t get the promotion, but he seems okay. It looks like he got over it. It looks like he’s moved past the negative feeling. He looks happy, but hey look, Marco is cool.” So we would expect nothing less from Marco.
Our second phrasal verb is to go over something, and this is essentially to examine something or to review something in detail. So you review it to look for any possible oversights or mistakes that might be in the document or whatever it may be. Like, let’s say if it’s a contract, you might look for any mistakes that are in the contract. You’re going over it again to make sure that every detail, every clause is correct.
So a contract is a good example: “We need to go over this contract and have the final draft by the end of the week.”
Another one: “I need to go over all the documentation for my taxes before the end of the year.” Oh no, don’t worry. Look, we’ll get by. We’ll get over it.
Okay, guys, and the last one we have, or the last one we’ll look at, is to come over. Okay, we’re actually going to look at three here together: to come over, to go over, and to stay over.
Okay, so let’s start with actually to go over (visiting), because this is a different use than the one we’ve just mentioned. So if we go over something, we review it. But if we go over to someone or if we go over to someone’s house, it just means we visit them… for a visit or a conversation.
So, for example, if you’re in a bar and you see a friend at the other end of the bar, you might think, “Oh, I’m going to go over and talk to my friend Maria. I haven’t seen her in ages. I’m going to go over and have a chat with her.” So it’s kind of like I’m gonna visit her or I’m gonna have a nice chat with her in the moment or at that moment.
But in general, we often use it for going over to a friend’s house. “Okay, I’m going over to my friend’s house this weekend to watch the football match. I can’t wait.”
And then in the past tense, for example: “Oh, last weekend I went over to visit some friends. We had a couple of beers. It was a really relaxing Saturday.”
To come over, conversely, means that someone comes to you or they come to your location. So, for example: “This weekend I have some friends that are coming over for some pizza and beer, and we’re gonna watch a movie. I can’t wait.” Okay, so they’re coming over here.
You might hear that as well in a conversation: “Hey, what are you doing at the weekend? Do you want to come over to our place?” Okay, maybe just to organise an event.
And then we can use stay over, which literally means to stay the night. So an example could be if some friends come over and you have a couple of beers, maybe, you know, you’re not gonna drive after a couple of beers because we don’t do that. It’s idiotic. So someone might stay over. They might sleep on the couch or in the spare room. They might stay over.
Cool guys. So those were three phrasal verbs. Well, I think really we had six in the end there, didn’t we? So we had to get over something, to get by, to go over something, then to simply go over (visiting), to come over, to stay over. Yeah, some really, really nice phrasal verbs that are just used all the time.
But look, don’t focus on remembering every phrasal verb. You know, don’t try to memorise everything. Just repeat. Repetition, when you see them in context and then it does become natural. Try to insert them. Try to use them in your daily life, if you can.
Okay guys. It’s been a pleasure. I hope you have a great week. Take care of yourselves. Ciao, ciao.
Comprehensive Glossary
availing of (phrasal verb) – making use of; taking advantage of (Irish/British usage)
Example: “We’re availing of the free trial period before we commit to a subscription.”
check out (phrasal verb) – to examine; to look at; to investigate
Example: “You should check out that new restaurant downtown—it’s amazing.”
get through (phrasal verb) – to successfully deal with or survive a difficult situation; to manage to do something difficult
Example: “It was a tough year, but we got through it together.”
kick in (phrasal verb) – to start; to begin to take effect
Example: “The medication should kick in within 30 minutes.”
to get over something (phrasal verb) – to recover from something; to move past something emotionally; to overcome
Example: “It took me months to get over the disappointment of not getting the job.”
get past (phrasal verb) – to move beyond something; to overcome an obstacle or difficulty
Example: “Once we get past this busy period, we can take a holiday.”
to get some closure (phrase) – to achieve a sense of resolution or finality about something
Example: “Talking to her ex-boyfriend helped her get some closure on the relationship.”
passes away (phrasal verb) – dies (euphemism)
Example: “Her grandfather passed away peacefully in his sleep.”
move on (phrasal verb) – to progress beyond something; to stop dwelling on the past and continue with life
Example: “After the divorce, she decided it was time to move on and start fresh.”
to get by (phrasal verb) – to manage to survive or cope, especially with difficulty; to have just enough to live on
Example: “I don’t earn much, but I get by with what I have.”
miss out on (phrasal verb) – to fail to get or experience something; to lose an opportunity
Example: “I missed out on the concert tickets—they sold out in minutes.”
to go over something (phrasal verb) – to review; to examine carefully; to check again in detail
Example: “Let’s go over the presentation one more time before the meeting.”
go over to (phrasal verb) – to visit someone at their location; to travel to someone’s place
Example: “I’m going over to my parents’ house for dinner tonight.”
to come over (phrasal verb) – to visit someone at your location; someone coming to where you are
Example: “Do you want to come over and watch the game this Saturday?”
stay over (phrasal verb) – to spend the night at someone else’s place
Example: “You’ve had too much to drink—why don’t you just stay over tonight?”
a hell of a lot (idiom) – a very large amount; extremely many (informal)
Example: “There’s a hell of a lot of work to do before the deadline.”
bear with me (idiom) – please be patient with me; please wait
Example: “This might take a few minutes to explain, so bear with me.”
stay with me (idiom) – keep following; keep paying attention; don’t lose focus
Example: “This gets complicated, so stay with me and I’ll explain it step by step.”
grief (noun) – deep sorrow, especially caused by someone’s death
Example: “She’s still experiencing grief over the loss of her mother.”
passing (noun) – death (euphemism)
Example: “The family is mourning the passing of their beloved grandmother.”
cherish (verb) – to hold dear; to treasure; to keep something precious in your heart
Example: “I cherish the memories of our summer holidays together.”
crap (adjective/noun) – bad; rubbish; of poor quality (informal, mildly vulgar)
Example: “I’m having a really crap day—nothing’s going right.”
baseline (noun) – a minimum or starting point used for comparisons; the basic level of something
Example: “My baseline level of fitness is quite low, so I’m starting with gentle exercise.”
setback (noun) – a difficulty or problem that delays progress or reverses development
Example: “Losing their star player was a major setback for the team.”
integral (adjective) – essential; necessary to make something complete
Example: “Teamwork is an integral part of our company culture.”
oversights (noun) – mistakes made by failing to notice or do something; things that were missed
Example: “There were a few oversights in the report that we need to correct.”
clause (noun) – a particular section or provision in a legal document or contract
Example: “Make sure you read the cancellation clause before signing the contract.”
conversely (adverb) – in an opposite way; on the other hand
Example: “Some people love the city. Conversely, others prefer the peace of the countryside.”
in ages (idiom) – for a very long time
Example: “I haven’t seen you in ages! How have you been?”
**Alternatively, you can watch the video below and turn on the subtitles by clicking the CC button in the top right corner:
If you liked this episode, you may enjoy the following:
https://nopressureenglish.com/podcast/episode-6-idioms-for-everyday-life/
https://nopressureenglish.com/podcast/episode-11-english-curse-words-explained/
Here is a link to review some general phrasal verbs:
https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b1/b1-phrasal-verbs-1-exercises-explanation/
