Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[xkx1111]

Why not present perfect is used in quoted part: Since she met some disabled young girls at college, she "got to thinking" about creating movies that tell people more about their world. MY teacher told me that present perfect should be used when "since" is used. e.g I have studied English for 3 years since 2003. Moreover, what does "got to thinking" mean exactly?

[2006]

I suggest that you not use "got to thinking". It is not a good phrase and I cannot tell you exactly what it means. To me, it means 'started thinking' but maybe it means something else to other people.

In your sentence I would use 'has been thinking' or 'has thought'.

[myprofe]

Yes, the teacher is right. When we use siince we refer to an action or a condition that began at that point and has continued from then to the present. To get to thinking is to start thinking. Something that happens makes you think or gets you thinking.
So, your sentence could have been:

Since she met some disabled young girls at college, she has been thinking about creating movies that tell people more about their world.

When she met some disabled young girls at college, she got to (began) thinking about creating movies that tell people more about their world.

After she met some disabled young girls at college, she got to (began) thinking about creating movies that tell people more about their world.
_________________
I'm never going to learn if you don't correct my mistakes!

[redset]

Here get to means to reach a point, so 'she got to thinking about creating movies' means that a sequence of events led her to think about creating movies - in this case the sequence was probably meeting the disabled girls and thinking about them and their situation, and how she could help them or educate other people. Get to can also mean begin, and you could say she started thinking about creating movies (after thinking about the other things) - there's usually the implication that things led up to the action taking place.

[xkx1111]

Sorry, I could not find my post. So I have to write it once more. Then the following sentence is totally wrong? "Since she met some disabled young girls at college, she has got to creating movies that tell people more about their world. "