I was amused by the line “I got to thinking about something” in the following answer to the question, “You don't want to answer this word-placement question, now do you?” which I saw this morning in my inbox from Stack Exchange:
“Prompted by this question I got to thinking about the placement of
the word now. If it's placed before the comma, it refers to an
immediate condition: You don't want to answer this word-placement…”
Does “get to doing [something]” mean “come to doing [something]” or “begin to do [something]”?
Though I think it’s a too naive question for native English speakers, how different is “I got to thinking about something” from “I got to think about something”? Does it become totally different with and without the ‘ing’?
Best Answer
There are two different senses here. The more common sense (and form) is...
...where “I got to thinking” could be replaced by “[It came about that] I started thinking”. There's no particular implication that the presence of others somehow prevented me from thinking.
But to my mind, in the less common form...
... “I got to think” could reasonably be replaced by “I [finally] got [the chance to] think...”.
The first form usually means “I fell to/started thinking”, the second “I was able to think”.
Note that my examples are in the past. In the present, there's a third possible meaning...
In this context, “[have] got to” can be replaced by “must” (expressing present/future obligation). As Peter Shor notes below, “have” is often omitted in casual speech (in present tense; the past tense form would normally omit “got” and keep “had”).