Get back on your feet means to recover after a difficult period. You can say it about a person who has recovered from an illness, a job loss or money problems, and about a business that has survived a crisis. The idiom suits conversation and IELTS Speaking; in an essay, recover is more common.
When would you say get back on your feet?
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get back on your feet (after + illness/problem); be back on your feet; help + someone/something + get back on their/its feet
- It took my dad two months to get back on his feet after the operation.
- After losing her job, Anna found freelance work and slowly got back on her feet.
- A small loan from the bank helped the café get back on its feet after a difficult winter.
What changed
First versionIt took me almost a month to get back on the feet after the flu.
RevisionIt took me almost a month to get back on my feet after the flu.
With parts of the body, English usually needs a possessive word, and in this idiom it is compulsory: my feet, his feet, its feet. So the correct form is get back on my feet. Only the was changed to my.
Do not confuse it with stand on your own two feet, which means to become independent and support yourself: After university, I wanted to stand on my own two feet. In get back on your feet, the word back signals a return: life was normal, then something went wrong, and the person recovered.
Your turn
Tom's business did well for ten years, but after a fire destroyed his workshop, it took him two years to ___.
Show the answer
get back on his feet — Tom ran his business successfully for ten years and then had to recover after the fire. That is a return to his old life, so the answer is get back on his feet. Stand on his own two feet means to become independent, but Tom was already independent, so the second option does not fit.
Think of a difficult period: an illness, a move or losing a job. Write what happened and what helped you get back on your feet.
When I lost my job last spring, my savings and some private tutoring helped me get back on my feet in three months.
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