get her way right

Question

Hi teachers,Could you please help me understand the following sentence?:Whenever the baby didn't get her way right , she screamed.What does "get her way right" mean?Thank you in advanve

Yizhivika · Accepted Answer

Hi Tuongvan,

"Get her way right" here, is non-standard English; the expression should be,

Whenever the baby didn't get her own way, she screamed.

It means she didn't get what she wanted.

Tuongvan · Answer

Thank you yizhivika very much<img src="http://www.EnglishForward.com/emoticons/emotion-22.gif"/>

BarbaraPA · Answer

Or maybe what was missing was the word "away."

"Right away" means immediately.

Yizhivika · Answer

Yes, that would make it grammatical, although I think having 'way' and 'away' in such close proximity in the sentence would make it a tad inelegant: if I were using that form of words, I think I would be more likely to say:

Whenever the baby didn't get her way ~~right~~ immediately, she screamed.

BarbaraPA · Answer

I agree with you completely, except for the "tad" part - it makes it ugly as all get out.

Yizhivika · Answer

Hi Grammar Geek,

Reading your post above reminds me of the quote attributed to George Bernard Shaw: "England and America are two nations divided by a common language."

"it makes it ugly as all get out"

Incidentally, my use of "a tad inelegant" was a case of British understatement. In truth, I find the expression "get her way right away" downright clumsy, and maybe I'll avoid the use of 'British understatement' in this Forum in future, lest it be misunderstood or misinterpreted in the wider English-speaking world.

BarbaraPA · Answer

But I'm willing to bet that context told you that "ugly as all get out" means "truly, really, deeply ugly" right?

get her way right

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