Get Down To Doing vs. Get Down To Do

Key details

Confusion Familyverb complement choice

Rule Familyverb complement licensing

TermsGet Down To Doing, Get Down To Do

Choose the right form

Decision table for Get Down To Doing vs. Get Down To Do
Meaning / situation	Form / construction	Decision
begin serious attention to an activity	get down to + -ing	Use the documented pattern.
a different use of “get down” plus a purpose infinitive	separate construction	Do not treat that as the same phrasal-complement pattern.

Quick tests

Meaning / construction test

Do you mean begin serious attention to an activity?

If yes: Use “get down to” plus the -ing form.

If no: Use another construction if the infinitive belongs to a different meaning of “get down.”

Caveat: The “to” in this phrasal construction is prepositional; the page does not make claims about unrelated uses of “get down.”

Examples

Example

Let’s get down to reviewing the figures.

The activity follows prepositional “to” with -ing.

Example

She got down to writing the report after lunch.

The phrase means she began serious work on the activity.

Example

We need to get down to solving the problem.

The documented complement is the -ing form.

Further guidance

Boundary

The to in get down to is prepositional in this pattern; do not infer a corresponding get down to + bare infinitive construction.

Construction

Oxford directly documents get down to (doing) something for beginning serious attention to an activity.

Decision

Use get down to + -ing when naming the activity you begin working on.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

get down to (opens in a new tab)Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries · Preferred lexical authority directly documenting get down to (doing) something.

Related guides

English Usage

Accustom Yourself To Doing vs. Accustom Yourself To Do

Cambridge directly gives accustom yourself to followed by an -ing form for becoming familiar with new conditions. The to belongs to the prepositional construction accustom yourself to something; do not infer an equivalent to-infinitive from the surface word to.

English Usage

Apply Yourself To Doing vs. Apply Yourself To Do

Oxford documents apply yourself to (doing) something for working hard and attentively at a task. This apply-yourself construction takes prepositional to; other senses of apply use different complements and should not be merged into this pattern.

English Usage

Be Busy Doing vs. Busy To Do

Cambridge directly documents busy + -ing for being occupied with an activity, and separately documents too busy to do something. Busy doing and too busy to do are different constructions with different meanings. Do not treat bare busy to do as a direct alternative to busy doing.

English Usage

Be Capable Of Doing vs. Capable To Do

Cambridge directly documents capable of something/doing something for having the ability, power, or qualities needed to do something. The documented adjective complement is capable of + noun or -ing form; do not replace the prepositional complement with capable to + infinitive on the basis of meaning alone.

English Usage

Be Good At Doing vs. Good To Do

Cambridge directly documents be good at something/doing something for being skilled or successful at an activity. Good to + infinitive can occur in other constructions and meanings, but it is not a substitute for the documented skill construction be good at + -ing.

English Usage

Be Reduced To Doing vs. Be Reduced To Do

Oxford directly documents reduce somebody/something to (doing) something, usually in the passive, for being forced into a worse state or action. Here to introduces the resulting state or activity; the authority does not establish an equivalent be reduced to + bare infinitive pattern.

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Grammar Verb Forms