A bit tricky because there are so many phrasal verbs with “get.” I’ll try to clear up some of the confusion. “Get to [verb]” (for most verbs in general) - typically means “to have the opportunity to [do or perform said verb]”. For example, “I won backstage tickets to this concert. I can’t believe we get to talk to our favorite artist!” “Got to talking” - colloquial/informal for “started talking,” most often used in situations such as your example (“She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. I made up some pretext for asking her about the time, and she seemed interested in continuing the conversation, so somehow we got to talking, and now here we are celebrating our first anniversary!”) “Get to work”/“get working” - phrasal verbs used to say “start working,” most often in exactly the type of situation you described above (“we have a lot to do, so let’s get to work!”). “Get to work” = a little more common. If you say “get working” people will understand what you mean but it is not used as often. As you can see, “get to work” is a phrasal verb that does not have the typical meaning of “have the opportunity to do”. However it MAY also be used in the first sense, as in “they changed my schedule, so now I get to work [have the opportunity to work] on Thursdays and Tuesdays instead of just Tuesdays.” Also, remember that “get to” can also mean “arrive to/at.” So “get to work” can also mean “arrive at work,” for example “I get to work at 6am every day.” Finally, the clauses in examples 1a and 1b I would connect differently; maybe something like “she was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. We got to talking, and... [continue the train of thought].” Separating the two clauses by a comma and “then” doesn’t quite make sense to me, but maybe it would make sense with the context of the sentence. Let me know if you have any questions! “Get” is used in so many different phrases, it takes a lot of listening/reading to really *get* it. :)

When used in this way "Get to (do something)" usually means "Be allowed to" or "have the opportunity to". In the first two sentences, the first means "I saw her and then we started talking", while the second means "I saw her, and then we had a chance to talk". Example, "I got to go to Disneyland" means that I had the opportunity to go to Disneyland. But "I got to Disneyland" just means you arrived at Disneyland. However, in the second two sentences, "Get to work" does actually mean "start working". 2A and 2B are interchangeable. The reason is that if "Get to" is followed by a verb (such as go or do), it means "have the opportunity to" but if it's followed by a noun, it means arrived or started. In the sentence "get to work", "work" is actually being used as a noun. You might also say "get to school" or "get to the car" to tell someone to go somewhere. But if you follow with a verb, such as saying "I got to go to school", It means I was able to go to school. On the other hand, if you put "have" in front of "got to", the meaning changes to "need". "I have got to go to school" means I need to go to school so to recap: I got to go to work = I had the opportunity to go to work I've got to go to work/I've got to get to work = I need to go to work I got to work = I arrived at work Get to work/go to work = Telling someone to go to work (imperative form) I hope this helps