取得(qǔ dé) - to obtain, to achieve, to gain in Mandarin

取得 (qǔdé) is the formal verb for coming into possession of something abstract and earned. It lives in reports, news bulletins and CVs, and it collocates hard: 取得成绩 (achieve results), 取得进展 (make progress), 取得成功 (succeed), 取得联系 (make contact), 取得资格 (qualify).

Those collocations are the whole skill. Native speakers do not compose 取得 sentences freely so much as select from a stock of pairings, and learning the pairings is faster than learning a definition. 取得联系 in particular is worth banking, because it is the standard phrase for getting in touch in any semi-formal email.

The trap is using it for physical objects. 取得一本书 is wrong, or at least strange enough to stop a reader. Taking a book off a shelf is 拿, collecting a parcel is 取, and receiving a gift is 收到 or 得到. 取得 wants an achievement, a status or a result, not a thing you can drop on your foot.