diff --git a/dvc/command/get.py b/dvc/command/get.py
--- a/dvc/command/get.py
+++ b/dvc/command/get.py
@@ -31,7 +31,9 @@ def run(self):
 
 
 def add_parser(subparsers, parent_parser):
-    GET_HELP = "Download/copy files or directories from DVC repository."
+    GET_HELP = (
+        "Download a file or directory from any DVC project or Git repository."
+    )
     get_parser = subparsers.add_parser(
         "get",
         parents=[parent_parser],
@@ -40,18 +42,17 @@ def add_parser(subparsers, parent_parser):
         formatter_class=argparse.RawDescriptionHelpFormatter,
     )
     get_parser.add_argument(
-        "url", help="URL of Git repository with DVC project to download from."
+        "url",
+        help="Location of DVC project or Git repository to download from",
     )
     get_parser.add_argument(
-        "path", help="Path to a file or directory within a DVC repository."
+        "path",
+        help="Path to a file or directory within the project or repository",
     )
     get_parser.add_argument(
-        "-o",
-        "--out",
-        nargs="?",
-        help="Destination path to copy/download files to.",
+        "-o", "--out", nargs="?", help="Destination path to download files to"
     )
     get_parser.add_argument(
-        "--rev", nargs="?", help="DVC repository git revision."
+        "--rev", nargs="?", help="Git revision (e.g. branch, tag, SHA)"
     )
     get_parser.set_defaults(func=CmdGet)
diff --git a/dvc/command/imp.py b/dvc/command/imp.py
--- a/dvc/command/imp.py
+++ b/dvc/command/imp.py
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ def run(self):
 
 def add_parser(subparsers, parent_parser):
     IMPORT_HELP = (
-        "Download data from DVC repository and take it under DVC control."
+        "Download a file or directory from any DVC project or Git repository"
+        "and take it under DVC control."
     )
 
     import_parser = subparsers.add_parser(
@@ -41,15 +42,17 @@ def add_parser(subparsers, parent_parser):
         formatter_class=argparse.RawTextHelpFormatter,
     )
     import_parser.add_argument(
-        "url", help="URL of Git repository with DVC project to download from."
+        "url",
+        help="Location of DVC project or Git repository to download from",
     )
     import_parser.add_argument(
-        "path", help="Path to data within DVC repository."
+        "path",
+        help="Path to a file or directory within the project or repository",
     )
     import_parser.add_argument(
-        "-o", "--out", nargs="?", help="Destination path to put data to."
+        "-o", "--out", nargs="?", help="Destination path to download files to"
     )
     import_parser.add_argument(
-        "--rev", nargs="?", help="DVC repository git revision."
+        "--rev", nargs="?", help="Git revision (e.g. branch, tag, SHA)"
     )
     import_parser.set_defaults(func=CmdImport)
diff --git a/dvc/exceptions.py b/dvc/exceptions.py
--- a/dvc/exceptions.py
+++ b/dvc/exceptions.py
@@ -240,11 +240,6 @@ def __init__(self, ignore_dirname):
         )
 
 
-class UrlNotDvcRepoError(DvcException):
-    def __init__(self, url):
-        super().__init__("URL '{}' is not a dvc repository.".format(url))
-
-
 class GitHookAlreadyExistsError(DvcException):
     def __init__(self, hook_name):
         super().__init__(
diff --git a/dvc/repo/get.py b/dvc/repo/get.py
--- a/dvc/repo/get.py
+++ b/dvc/repo/get.py
@@ -7,10 +7,9 @@
     DvcException,
     NotDvcRepoError,
     OutputNotFoundError,
-    UrlNotDvcRepoError,
     PathMissingError,
 )
-from dvc.external_repo import external_repo
+from dvc.external_repo import external_repo, cached_clone
 from dvc.path_info import PathInfo
 from dvc.stage import Stage
 from dvc.utils import resolve_output
@@ -42,37 +41,47 @@ def get(url, path, out=None, rev=None):
     # and won't work with reflink/hardlink.
     dpath = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(out))
     tmp_dir = os.path.join(dpath, "." + str(shortuuid.uuid()))
+    repo_dir = None
     try:
-        with external_repo(cache_dir=tmp_dir, url=url, rev=rev) as repo:
-            # Try any links possible to avoid data duplication.
-            #
-            # Not using symlink, because we need to remove cache after we are
-            # done, and to make that work we would have to copy data over
-            # anyway before removing the cache, so we might just copy it
-            # right away.
-            #
-            # Also, we can't use theoretical "move" link type here, because
-            # the same cache file might be used a few times in a directory.
-            repo.cache.local.cache_types = ["reflink", "hardlink", "copy"]
-
-            try:
-                output = repo.find_out_by_relpath(path)
-            except OutputNotFoundError:
-                output = None
-
-            if output and output.use_cache:
-                _get_cached(repo, output, out)
-            else:
+        try:
+            with external_repo(cache_dir=tmp_dir, url=url, rev=rev) as repo:
+                # Try any links possible to avoid data duplication.
+                #
+                # Not using symlink, because we need to remove cache after we
+                # are done, and to make that work we would have to copy data
+                # over anyway before removing the cache, so we might just copy
+                # it right away.
+                #
+                # Also, we can't use theoretical "move" link type here, because
+                # the same cache file might be used a few times in a directory.
+                repo.cache.local.cache_types = ["reflink", "hardlink", "copy"]
+
+                try:
+                    output = repo.find_out_by_relpath(path)
+                except OutputNotFoundError:
+                    output = None
+
+                if output and output.use_cache:
+                    _get_cached(repo, output, out)
+                    return
+
                 # Either an uncached out with absolute path or a user error
-                if os.path.isabs(path):
-                    raise FileNotFoundError
 
-                fs_copy(os.path.join(repo.root_dir, path), out)
+                repo_dir = repo.root_dir
+
+        except NotDvcRepoError:
+            # Not a DVC repository, continue below and copy from git
+            pass
+
+        if os.path.isabs(path):
+            raise FileNotFoundError
+
+        if not repo_dir:
+            repo_dir = cached_clone(url, rev=rev)
 
+        fs_copy(os.path.join(repo_dir, path), out)
     except (OutputNotFoundError, FileNotFoundError):
         raise PathMissingError(path, url)
-    except NotDvcRepoError:
-        raise UrlNotDvcRepoError(url)
     finally:
         remove(tmp_dir)
 

diff --git a/tests/func/test_get.py b/tests/func/test_get.py
--- a/tests/func/test_get.py
+++ b/tests/func/test_get.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 from dvc.cache import Cache
 from dvc.config import Config
-from dvc.exceptions import UrlNotDvcRepoError
 from dvc.repo.get import GetDVCFileError, PathMissingError
 from dvc.repo import Repo
 from dvc.system import System
@@ -87,9 +86,10 @@ def test_get_repo_rev(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
 def test_get_from_non_dvc_repo(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
     erepo_dir.scm.repo.index.remove([erepo_dir.dvc.dvc_dir], r=True)
     erepo_dir.scm.commit("remove dvc")
+    erepo_dir.scm_gen({"some_file": "contents"}, commit="create file")
 
-    with pytest.raises(UrlNotDvcRepoError):
-        Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "some_file.zip")
+    Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "some_file", "file_imported")
+    assert (tmp_dir / "file_imported").read_text() == "contents"
 
 
 def test_get_a_dvc_file(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
@@ -136,6 +136,14 @@ def test_absolute_file_outside_repo(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
         Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "/root/")
 
 
+def test_absolute_file_outside_git_repo(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
+    erepo_dir.scm.repo.index.remove([erepo_dir.dvc.dvc_dir], r=True)
+    erepo_dir.scm.commit("remove dvc")
+
+    with pytest.raises(PathMissingError):
+        Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "/root/")
+
+
 def test_unknown_path(tmp_dir, erepo_dir):
     with pytest.raises(PathMissingError):
         Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "a_non_existing_file")
@@ -164,10 +172,6 @@ def test_get_from_non_dvc_master(tmp_dir, erepo_dir, caplog):
         erepo_dir.dvc.scm.repo.index.remove([".dvc"], r=True)
         erepo_dir.dvc.scm.commit("remove .dvc")
 
-    # sanity check
-    with pytest.raises(UrlNotDvcRepoError):
-        Repo.get(fspath(erepo_dir), "some_file")
-
     caplog.clear()
     dst = "file_imported"
     with caplog.at_level(logging.INFO, logger="dvc"):

get/import: help output should reflect non-DVC Git repo support
After #2889 and  #3020, these comments can also obtain files that are tracked by Git but not DVC, however their help output looks:

```console
$ dvc get -h
usage: dvc get [-h] [-q | -v] [-o [OUT]] [--rev [REV]] url path
...
positional arguments:
  url                   URL of Git repository with DVC project to download
                        from.
  path                  Path to a file or directory within a DVC repository.
$ dvc import -h
usage: dvc import [-h] [-q | -v] [-o [OUT]] [--rev [REV]] url path
...
positional arguments:
  url                   URL of Git repository with DVC project to download from.
  path                  Path to data within DVC repository.

$  dvc version
DVC version: 0.80.0
Python version: 3.7.6
Platform: Darwin-19.0.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
Binary: False
Package: brew
```

I think all `url` and `path` descriptions need to be updated.
get/import: help output should reflect non-DVC Git repo support
After #2889 and  #3020, these comments can also obtain files that are tracked by Git but not DVC, however their help output looks:

```console
$ dvc get -h
usage: dvc get [-h] [-q | -v] [-o [OUT]] [--rev [REV]] url path
...
positional arguments:
  url                   URL of Git repository with DVC project to download
                        from.
  path                  Path to a file or directory within a DVC repository.
$ dvc import -h
usage: dvc import [-h] [-q | -v] [-o [OUT]] [--rev [REV]] url path
...
positional arguments:
  url                   URL of Git repository with DVC project to download from.
  path                  Path to data within DVC repository.

$  dvc version
DVC version: 0.80.0
Python version: 3.7.6
Platform: Darwin-19.0.0-x86_64-i386-64bit
Binary: False
Package: brew
```

I think all `url` and `path` descriptions need to be updated.

tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_from_non_dvc_repo tests/func/test_get.py::test_absolute_file_outside_git_repo
tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_repo_file tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_repo_dir tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_git_file tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_git_dir tests/func/test_get.py::test_cache_type_is_properly_overridden tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_repo_rev tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_a_dvc_file tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_full_dvc_path tests/func/test_get.py::test_non_cached_output tests/func/test_get.py::test_absolute_file_outside_repo tests/func/test_get.py::test_unknown_path tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_to_dir[.] tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_to_dir[dir] tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_to_dir[dir/subdir] tests/func/test_get.py::test_get_from_non_dvc_master