You may want to get the latest version of a file in a subversion repository, but NOT checking the file out (which will then create the .svn directory, enabling you to later on updating and committing changes)
To get the latest version of a Subversion file – enabling you to update and commit afterwards:
svn checkout URL PATH
To only get the latest version of a Subversion file – NO updates and commits possible (a so-called unversioned tree):
svn export URL PATH