English Help Online's Blog

Today I’ve got another very useful and common expression for you: “get rid of”. This is used when we talk about wanting to dispose of something that we have. Therefore the thing is not something that we like, and we want it to go away. For example:

In this card game, you want to have all high cards like jacks, queens and kings, so you should try to get rid of your low cards as soon as possible.

I have an old TV that I need to get rid of. It still works. Would you like to have it?

I have a problem with ants in my kitchen. Do you know how I can get rid of them?

Brad and Jane are bringing over their children tonight, so please get rid of any sharp objects in the apartment. We don’t want the kids to hurt themselves.

Those old running shoes smell so bad!  Please get rid of them as soon as possible!

There are many ways of getting rid of something. We can throw it in the garbage (as with the running shoes), kill it (as with the ants), hide it (as with the sharp objects), give it away (as with the TV) or just stop holding it (as with the cards). As I said before, this is an extremely common expression in English, so I hope you’ll be able to use it now.  🙂