The spelling of the phrase "gat worse" may seem unusual, but it can be explained using IPA phonetic transcription. "Gat" is actually a dialectal and archaic variation of "got," which is the past tense of "get." The letter "a" in "gat" is pronounced as the "a" in "cat," while the "t" is pronounced as a soft "d." Meanwhile, "worse" is spelled as it is pronounced, with the "o" pronounced as in "more" and the "se" pronounced as a soft "z." Therefore, "gat worse" would be phonetically transcribed as /ɡæt wɔːz/.