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A Voice of America Learning English page contains the sentence "You get the grass the dirt."

It brings so many memories and feelings and, you know, it’s earthy and natural. You get the grass the dirt. It’s all those things. And I love that connection.

Why do two nouns come following "get"? Generally there's only one noun.

Andrew Leach
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Myeong Eun-Bi
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    This appears to mean nothing. What was the website where you saw it? – Kate Bunting Mar 14 '21 at 08:07
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    I've found it. It appears to need a comma. – Andrew Leach Mar 14 '21 at 08:32
  • I think this is "get" in the slang sense of to understand or, more correctly, to connect to something emotionally. Like "I get the Appalachians, the music the lifestyle, the landscape, the people, the whole scene". Though I agree there is a comma missing! – BoldBen Mar 14 '21 at 08:49
  • “You get the grass, the dirt.” You can hear the pause. – Xanne Mar 14 '21 at 09:11
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    I don't think "get" means "understand", but something like "experience the sensation of". A comma would be helpful. – BillJ Mar 14 '21 at 09:30
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    What @BillJ said. I love going to Soho on a Sunday afternoon. You get the street food, the buskers,... – FumbleFingers Mar 14 '21 at 11:55
  • When you come to SE, you get a lot of comments and opinions. get=experience or to be exposed to. – Lambie Mar 14 '21 at 15:48
  • There is a comma missing between the grass and the dirt. And get means, roughly, perceive here: Since root vegetables grow underground, they take in many nutrients from the soil... Growing underground also gives them their special flavor that is described by most people as “earthy.” “It brings so many memories and feelings and, you know, it’s earthy and natural. You get the grass [flavor], the dirt [flavor].” See: To perceive or become aware of by one of the senses at get 9a. – Tinfoil Hat Mar 15 '21 at 00:04

2 Answers2

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Get is, among other things, a fairly ordinary transitive verb which can take a single direct object:

I get a book.

It's also a ditransitive verb which can be followed by two nouns. In that case, the first is the indirect object which is followed by the direct object:

I get the man a book. → I get a book for the man.

There are many ditransitive verbs: as well as get, there are tell, give, read, pay:

I tell the man a story.
I give the man a book.
I read the boy a story.
I pay the woman some cash.

In all of the examples, what is actually told, given, read or paid [the direct object] is the second noun. The first is the indirect object, recipient of the direct object.

So "You get the grass the dirt" could mean that you obtain some dirt and you give it to the grass. That's not entirely nonsense, but it's such an unlikely act — particularly in the context of home-grown vegetables — that it cannot be what's intended.

What is intended in the text is that you get grass and dirt on your home-grown produce. The sentence could quite easily be

You get the grass and the dirt.

However, what is being employed in the text is asyndeton where and is omitted for effect. When you omit and in this way, you need to replace it with a comma (or you get a ditransitive verb):

You get the grass, the dirt.

It's a typo, a misprint; and it's rather unfortunate in a text designed for learners of English.

Andrew Leach
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As Andrew Leach states, "get" is a fairly ordinary transitive verb. As such, it can refer to multiple subjects.

"When you look out your window, what do you see?"

"I see roads, buildings, cars, pedestrians, and all the other things which make up a cityscape."

In your quote, the only thing unusual is ommitting a comma or "and" between "the grass" and "the dirt". Normally, a list of two items will use "and" as a separator, but not always.

So, in the case of "get", you might have a sentence like,

"Mail is always interesting. I might get catalogs, bills, an eviction notice or a letter from my girlfriend."

WhatRoughBeast
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