to get onto
- phrasal verb
- /ɡɛt ˈɑnˌtu/
- Informal
- Once she reviewed the instructions carefully, she was able to get onto the new software quickly.
Examples
-
He found it difficult at first, but eventually, he got onto the main idea of the lecture.
-
But stuff like that helps me get onto the bigger projects.
-
Someone else gets onto the idea.
Academic text (1997) -
I'll get onto it, OK?
-
Z Zenils, they are still struggling to get onto the housing market.
-
They tried to stop him outside a tube station, but he decided not to speak to them and ran into the station, jumped the turnstile, and got onto a train.
Blog text (34) -
I got onto the path through the urging of a friend who said the door to awakening was not sitting but total openness, courage, and honesty.
Blog text (2) -
I want to get into the topic of your blog—you've got a pretty cool blog, and a while back you got onto the topic of reviews.
Blog text (2) -
Less rare are the ones who, once they get onto a tear expressing themselves, especially when they're new to it, do so floridly as a way of expressing their zeal, stretching their muscles.
Blog text (2) -
After struggling with the math problem for an hour, I finally managed to get onto the solution.
Synonyms
To understand what someone says or an idea
To understand something after someone explains it
To begin to understand something after a while
Start to accept and deal with a difficult situation
Start to understand what is happening or what to do
To understand someone tricked you and become more careful
To begin to understand an idea after not getting it at first
To finally understand something after some confusion
To begin to understand and deal with a difficult subject or problem
Start to understand something after not understanding it
To suddenly understand something you did not notice before
Antonyms
How Understood
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a clear connection between 'get' (to comprehend) and 'onto' (on to/aware of), so a learner who knows both words can infer a sense of coming to awareness. However, the particle 'onto' here has a metaphorical, phrasal-verb function and the exact sense 'begin to understand after difficulty' is not fully predictable from the parts and varies by usage, making it only partially transparent.
Etymology
Get onto comes from the image of get + onto: climbing onto a horse or a platform to join it and see things more clearly. That's why when you get onto an idea you finally 'begin to understand' it.