Meaning & use
informal get-together
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Meanings
nouncountable
A relaxed, friendly meeting of people who know each other, without formal rules or ceremony.
Grammar: Countable, so you can say a get-together or two get-togethers; the adjective informal often comes before it.
Patterns
- hold a get-together
- go to a get-together
- a family get-together
We're having a small informal get-together at our place on Saturday.
The neighbors organized an informal get-together in the garden to welcome the new family.
After the conference, a few of us had an informal get-together at a café nearby.
phrasefixed phrase
Used to describe meeting someone in a casual way, without planning or ceremony.
Grammar: This is the verb phrase get together with the adjective informal added before it; it is not a single noun.
Patterns
- an informal get together with someone
- an informal get together between people
It was just an informal get together with old classmates, nothing official.
They arranged an informal get together between the two teams before the match.
Word forms
| plural | informal get-togethers |
|---|
Common combinations
- hold a get-together
- They hold a get-together for staff every summer.
- a family get-together
- Our family get-together is always on New Year's Day.
- a small get-together
- She invited me to a small get-together with a few friends.
- an informal get-together
- The club arranges an informal get-together once a month.
- a get-together with friends
- I'm busy tonight — I have a get-together with friends.
- organize a get-together
- Could you organize a get-together for the whole team?
Synonyms and how they differ
- gathering
- Gathering is more neutral and can be large or formal, while a get-together sounds small, friendly and relaxed.
- party
- A party usually involves food, music or celebration, but a get-together can be just people chatting with no special occasion.
- meet-up
- Meet-up is informal and common online, especially for strangers with a shared interest, while a get-together usually involves people who already know each other.
Opposites
Word family
- get together phrasal verb
- To meet someone socially, written as two words: Let's get together next week.
Commonly confused: informal get-together or get together? informal get-together or get-together?
informal get-together vs get together
The phrasal verb is written as two separate words and describes the act of meeting; the noun get-together is hyphenated and names the event itself.
informal get-together vs get-together
Without informal, the noun simply means any casual social meeting; adding informal stresses that there is no formal structure.
Practice
Which sentence uses the noun correctly?
Choose one answer.
The noun is hyphenated and countable, so 'an informal get-together' is correct. Option A wrongly uses the noun as a verb, option C mixes a singular article with a plural form, and option D puts the words in the wrong order.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “informal get-together”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.