phrasal verb · neutral
get to the bottom of
UK/ɡet tə ðə ˈbɒtəm ɒv/US/ɡɛt tə ðə ˈbɑtəm əv/get·to·the·BOT·tom·of
to find out the real cause or explanation of something
Examples
“The committee must get to the bottom of the funding irregularities.”
“Journalists tried to get to the bottom of the corruption scandal.”
“We need to get to the bottom of why students are dropping out.”
Band 8 sentence
“If we want to reduce drop-out rates, we must first get to the bottom of the real reasons behind them.”
Collocations
- get to the bottom of a problem
- get to the bottom of a mystery
Word family
Common mistakes
get to bottom of the problem→get to the bottom of the problem
find the bottom of the problem→get to the bottom of the problem
Say it for a higher band
5find out→6look into→7+get to the bottom of
Synonyms
investigate
look into
Easily confused
get to grips with
“We need to get to grips with the new regulations before they take effect.”
Related words
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In get …
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