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Is there any difference between "go through a door" and "get through a door"?

Kinzle B
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3 Answers3

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NOAD lists five meanings of go through:

go through 1 undergo (a difficult or painful period or experience) : the country is going through a period of economic instability. 2 search through or examine carefully or in sequence : she started to go through the bundle of letters. 3 (of a proposal or contract) be officially approved or completed : the sale of the building is set to go through. 4 [informal] use up or spend (available money or other resources). 5 (of a book) be successively published in (a specified number of editions) : within two years it went through thirty-one editions.

and two for get through

get through 1 (also get someone through) pass or assist someone in passing (a difficult or testing experience or period) : I need these lessons to get me through my exam. • (also get something through) (with reference to a piece of legislation) become or cause to become law. 2 make contact by telephone : after an hour of busy signals, I finally got through. • succeed in communicating with someone in a meaningful way : I just don't think anyone can get through to these kids.

There are two things worth noting:

  • (a) There is much similarity between first listed meanings of each entry, in that both connote dealing with some kind of hardship, difficulty, or struggle, and
  • (b) none of the meanings in either entry are related to going or getting through a doorway or tunnel.

So, to go through a doorway simply means to pass through the doorway. There is no idiomatic meaning.

To get through a doorway implies getting through a doorway after some small struggle:

After getting stuck for a moment, she finally got through the doorway with her two heavy shopping bags.

J.R.
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  • Go through can also mean to advance to the next stage in a competition. Like a football team that goes through to the semifinals meaning that they have qualified to the semifinals. – Robert Dec 12 '18 at 16:04
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Get through means "to suffer through."
To get through something usually means in an emotional state, like to get through a divorce, or to get through something challenging, like a test.

She was so tired that it was difficult to get through the day.

Go through means "to pass through something."
"Go through something" is the physical of "go through something," and it is always in the present tense, like "go through a divorce" or "go through a tunnel."

After you buy your token, put it in the slot and go through the turnstile. Go through the old city gates and you will see beautiful 15th century church.

So its always you go through a door, not get through a door.

apaderno
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GrIsHu
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    I like the general direction where this answer is going, but go through can also mean "endure through hard times". Consider: We went through some hard times just before the divorce. Or: Economists predict the jobs market will go through more hard times before the economy recovers. – J.R. Sep 20 '13 at 09:31
  • @J.R. yes you are right it can also work like that. – GrIsHu Sep 20 '13 at 09:38
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    Are "go through" and "get through" interchangable in your above two examples? @J.R. – Kinzle B Sep 20 '13 at 11:43
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    I wouldn't say interchangeable in those contexts. "Go through the turnstile" is right – unless it gets stuck, then maybe you "get through the turnstile". "Get through the day" is right, too. I wouldn't say "go through the day" when I'm talking about struggling to stay awake and alert. As for my examples, I would only use "got through some hard times" instead of "went through some hard times" if the relationship stayed together, instead of ending in a divorce. And I wouldn't use "job market will get through more hard times," either, until I was talking in retrospect. This is tricky. – J.R. Sep 20 '13 at 12:30
  • @J.R. : Really tricky but with your answers , it becomes easy to understand... – Sweet72 Sep 20 '13 at 12:35
  • I got it. "get through" implies success in passing the difficulty while "go through" doesn't, right? @J.R. – Kinzle B Sep 20 '13 at 13:02
  • In a doorway, yes, but not necessarily in other contexts. That's why it's tricky. Consider: She has three young children and two of them are still in diapers. She goes through a lot [of stress] everyday. That's a perfectly acceptable usage of go though, and it implies "success in passing difficulties." – J.R. Sep 20 '13 at 13:05
  • So what is the fundamental difference in usage when both of the two phrasal verbs relate to hard times? This is now really baffles me. @J.R. – Kinzle B Sep 20 '13 at 13:15
  • I don't know if there is a "fundamental difference." There are contexts where their meanings overlap, and there are contexts where one seems much more fitting than another. – J.R. Sep 20 '13 at 17:40
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As per thesaurus.com, "go through" means withstand, experience, survive and "get through" means handle, exist, sustain, suffer.

Go through the door means to pass through the door.

Get through the door can be used like this :

It was really hard to get through that small door.

Sweet72
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