Git beginner - Need help understanding

I'm just beginning to use Git in my workplace, and (rather shamefully) have
never heard of Git until now. While I pore over the stacks of documentations
for beginners, could someone help me understand this issue I've been having? 

Every time a colleague updates a file, I would not be able to pull due to
merge conflicts - even though I have never made any changes to the
repository. I'd try  and then  again, but it would still give the same merge
conflict. The only way I could pull currently is to do a git commit (even
without changes), and then git pull.

If this was SVN, I could simply resolve this with Update. What am I missing,
and what should I be looking for?

Thanks in advance..

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