difference between get away with and get by

[Slawa]

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #163 "Idioms with the phrasal verb get", question 3

The high school teacher was so strict that he would not let his students ......... any of the stunts that they tried to pull with their previous teacher.

(a) get away with
(b) get by with
(c) get down to
(d) get around

English Language Tests, Intermediate level

ESL/EFL Test #163 "Idioms with the phrasal verb get", answer 3

The high school teacher was so strict that he would not let his students get away with any of the stunts that they tried to pull with their previous teacher.

Correct answer: (a) get away with

Your answer was: incorrect
The high school teacher was so strict that he would not let his students get by with any of the stunts that they tried to pull with their previous teacher.
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Hi!What does it mean"get away with"and also"get by with".Thanks.

Slawa

[Yankee]

Hi Slawa

Look at definitions 40 and 41 http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=get+away+with&r=66]here:

40. get away with, to perpetrate or accomplish without detection or punishment: Some people lie and cheat and always seem to get away with it.

41. get by,
a. to succeed in going past: to get by a police barricade.
b. to manage to exist, survive, continue in business, etc., in spite of difficulties.
c. to evade the notice of: He doesn't let much get by him.
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[lost_soul]

Hi, Amy

Apart from your a-c meanings, I stumbled on another meaning of get by with (which pretty much looks like your c option), in my opinion very similar to get away with. Here I quote a few examples I found in a dictionary so you can understand what I'm drivelling about:

1. You can't get by with being late every morning
2. I can't understand how he gets by with fooling everybody
3. He cheated on the test and got by with it
4. You'll never get by with it


Do you consider this usage of get by with natural ? Do you think we can substitute it for get away with ?

Thanks !
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Alex

A native speaker of Russian

[Yankee]

Hi Alex

I have a suspicion that the dictionary you quoted was not an American dictionary. Am I right?
I would understand all of your sentences as having the meaning of definition 41b.

To me, there is no such phrasal verb as 'get by with'. In other words, the word 'with' should not be parsed together with 'get by'. 'With' might be used after 'get by', but a number of other prepositions might be used too.
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[lost_soul]

Hi, Amy

Yeah, you're right, I looked it up in a dictionary compiled by russians and they didn't mention the origin of get by with (neither did they mention in what country it is used).
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Alex

A native speaker of Russian

[Alan]

Hi LS,

This might be a bit of a cheat since the 'with' is something added after rather than part of 'get by' but it might be interesting: