to get back to
- phrasal verb
- /ɡɛt bæk tu/
- She promised to get back to me after she has checked the details.
Even if it is, I'll get back to you next Monday.
- Even if it is, I'll get back to you next Monday.
- OK, I'll get back to your question in a second.
Examples
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OK, I'll get back to your question in a second.
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All right, so let's get back to these questions here.
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All right, so we'll get back to this today.
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We'll get back to the money later on.
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Even if it is, I'll get back to you next Monday.
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CLIVE: Can we get back to the business at hand?
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Can't wait to get back to work.
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Well, we'd better get back to work, sir.
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So, let’s get back to work.
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I'll get back to you with the information you requested later this week.
Antonyms
How Quickly
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to reply to someone later' is partially derivable from the constituents: 'get' + 'back' carries the notion of returning, and the particle 'to' marks the recipient, so a learner can infer a sense of returning contact or information. However, the specific pragmatic meaning of 'follow up' or 'respond later' is a conventionalized phrasal-verb usage that is not fully predictable from the parts, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Get back to may come from the simple image of someone leaving a talk to find an answer and then get back to the person when they come back. So, it now means 'to reply' or 'to give information' later.