is/get

Question

She gets pregnant.She is pregnant. What is the difference?Thank you

Belushi · Accepted Answer

I am not sure that you could grammatically say "She gets pregnant"

I think it should be "She becomes pregnant"

"She is pregnant" intimates that she has been pregnant for some time.

D.

CalifJim · Answer

When we use to be [pregnant, tired, warm, dark, loud, lost, comfortable, ...], we are speaking about a state of affairs that is in effect at the moment we say so. But the moment in time when that state of affairs began is not part of the message we are communicating.

If I say I'm tired, I mean that, at the moment I say it, I feel that I am in a certain state - the state of being tired. I do not say anything about when I started to be tired.

When we use to get [pregnant, tired, warm, dark, loud, lost, comfortable, ...], we are speaking about the moment when that state of affairs begins. The focus is on the change of state from not being a certain way to being a certain way.

If I say When the sun sets, the sky gets dark, I mean that the beginning of being dark coincides with the setting of the sun. It is not dark. Then there is a change of state. It is then dark. The moment of change from 'not dark' to 'dark' is expressed by saying get(s)/got dark.

So to get pregnant is to do or experience whatever it is that changes one from 'not being pregnant' to 'being pregnant'. To be pregnant does not actually involve doing anything at all. It is simply being in the state of pregnancy - being in the state of expecting a child.

CJ

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