Get by means to manage with what you have when there's barely enough money, or barely enough of something else. It's most often said about a modest income: get by on £1,000 a month. The second meaning is to cope at a basic level, especially in a language: I can get by in French means you can make yourself understood in French.
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get by on + money/salary; get by in + language; just/barely get by
- When I was a student, I got by on part-time work and cheap pasta.
- My Spanish isn't great, but I can get by in shops and restaurants.
- With rents so high, a lot of young people are just getting by.
What changed
First versionIt's hard to bring the ends together on a student loan in London.
RevisionIt's hard to get by on a student loan in London.
Bring the ends together isn't an English idiom; it sounds literal, as if you were talking about the ends of a rope. English says get by or the set phrase make ends meet. So the phrase is replaced with get by.
Live on + an amount simply states what money someone lives on: Many students live on less than £800 a month. Get by adds that money is tight and you have to be resourceful: It's tight, but we get by.
Your turn
After I lost my job, we had to ___ on my partner's salary for six months.
Show the answer
get by — For six months the family lived on one salary and somehow managed, so get by. Get over means to recover from an illness, a break-up or a setback, and it isn't used for living on one salary.
Describe a period when you had to save money: studying, moving, a first job. Say what money you lived on and what you gave up.
During my first year at university, I got by on a small scholarship and stopped eating out completely.
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