Get going
To “get going” is to start something after a delay. To start something, to start a process, and usually—not always—but usually after some kind of a delay.
Let’s start with an easy example. Imagine you have a meeting at work and everyone comes in. It’s supposed to start at 9:00 a.m. People trickle in. It’s 9:05. Everyone’s chatting a little bit. Just a minute while we get the screen working. Ok, now the projector or the screen is connected, everyone is here. It’s 9:07. The leader of the meeting says, “Okay, let’s get going.”
That means, “let’s start the meeting.” And it’s 9:07, for a 9:00 meeting, not too bad. Now I’ve been in Mexico for long enough know that in some parts of the world starting a 9:00 meeting at 9:07 is early! But in the U.S., at least, that’s late. That’s a delay. So by saying, “let’s get going,” you really mean, “okay, we’ve had a bit of a delay, but let’s start now.”
You can sometimes use “let’s get going” to nudge people into moving faster. Traveling with friends is fun—going on vacation in small groups. But for me, it can also be frustrating because groups move slowly.
It can be a struggle to get four people out the door to go to dinner. Sometimes, depending on the group, you just need someone to keep the group moving. Sadly, that person is almost always me. So sometimes I have to ask, Is everyone dressed and ready? All right, good. So let’s get going. That’s a way of nudging the group into moving—a gentle acknowledgement of the delay and a suggestion to start the process of going to dinner.
Here’s another way to use it, and this is how I used in in today’s story. You can say, “we’re just getting going,” meaning, “we have just recently started.”
Sphere has hosted some U2 concerts and one film . That’s it? For a $2.3 billion entertainment facility that opened months ago? You would think they might have come out of the gate a bit stronger.
It will have more events in the future. It’s just getting going. That means, Sphere is just starting—it only recently opened. You can’t show a normal movie on a 270-degree curved 16K screen. So it’s going to take some time to develop films for that space, to develop shows for the space. They’re just getting going—give them some time, they’ll get more shows on the calendar.
Remember that 9:00 meeting that started at 9:07? Let’s imagine someone walks in at 9:10. He has an apologetic look on his face. He missed ten minutes of the meeting, or so he thought. Someone might say, “don’t worry. We’re just getting going.” That means, we have just recently started. You didn’t miss much.
See you next time!
And that brings us to the end of today’s Plain English. I’m really curious now about the Sphere. No, wait. You can’t call it “the Sphere.” They made that very clear on the website. You have to call it “Sphere.” So I’m excited about “Sphere.”
When I first heard about it, I didn’t think I was interested. But now. I kind of like the idea. It sounds like it would be great for a concert. One thing I don’t like about mega concerts, the ones at big stadiums and arenas, is that the sound is just not that good. But I bet here it is.
Anyway, that’s all for us here at Plain English today. Remember, the full transcript, the story, the picture, all that stuff is available at PlainEnglish.com/631. Check it out. See you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend.
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