To loathe the gradual creep of "gotten " as accepted English

[BonnyDay]

In this country ?

[Proudnscary]

Nope. I hate it too.

[FredFredGeorge]

YABU It's a useful disctinction to have, and returning it to British English seems fine, everyone understands it.

[SomersetONeil]

YABU - it is old English and accepted in the Antipodes as well as the US, so very familiar to my ear.

[RaisinDEtre]

I KNOW it's Olde English but I'm with you Bonny, me no likey

[meditrina]

What distinction does it make? I thought it was interchangeable?

And it is a return to use, not new introduction here. I don't like how it sounds personally, but it's not an incomprehensible change. And not that widespread (yet).

[Proudnscary]

The 'Olde English' holds no truck with me, it has not been used over here for centuries until the last couple of years, so I consider it an Americanism.

[Slothlorien]

I hate it too. But Jane Austen used it which made me feel a bit better.

[TheBigJessie]

The disuse of "gotten" a few hundred years ago is an example of the devolution/simplication/streamlining of our language. However, it clearly fulfils a grammatical need, so UK humans are picking it up, back from our cousins who never lost it.

I'm more bothered by people equating "disinterested" with "uninterested". To be "disinterested" is to be unpartisan in the matter. Not bored of it!

[Tee2072]

Except language evolves. And sometimes goes backwards.

Gotten is old English. And is perfectly acceptable in many English speaking parts of the world.

[TheBigJessie]

Oh, and people who can't conjugate the verb "drink" correctly. They're annoying.

[honeytea]

I think life must be pretty nice for you if one of the things you loath is the use of the word gotten. if you don't like it just don't use it yourself.

[meditrina]

It didn't totally die out in UK; it fossilised into lesser use in some dialects and into idioms, like ill-gotten gains, and is used in the KJV and PB both as gotten and begotten.

[sassytheFIRST]

I don't like it either. Faucet is an Old English term too (iirc) but we don't want that back do we?

[TheBigJessie]

If we all use "gotten" when grammatically appropriate, life will be much simpler. It is presently conjugated/declined for the word "forgot" as a verb and adjective, and haphazardly in "got"

[Tee2072]

Faucet as in the thing the water comes out of? I use that all the time.

[PseudoBadger]

It's horrendous! And if you dare to point out such things on MN you're made to feel like a real Queen's English stick in the mud.

[TheBigJessie]

It is Queen Elizabeth the first 's English!



Now, how do we feel about learned/learnt, and similar present tense, 3rd person singular endings?

I prefer the -t ending.

[SomersetONeil]

What heinous crime has faucet committed that we wouldn't want it back?

[aldiwhore]

I hate it.

I also loathe it when I hear "Can you borrow me a fiver?"

Wary and weary seem to get mixed up a lot too.

I'm not even a Grammar Hound....

[AKissIsNotAContract]

None of these are as annoying to me as 'I was sat'. No you weren't, you were sitting.

[TheBigJessie]

Yeah, people who mix up load and borrow need to have their own money borrowed. Repeatedly. And never paid back.

Although I am repeatedly guilty of mixing up "let" and "rent" in the exact same way...

I once saw a sign asking me if I wanted to "loose weight". No, I want to lose my loose weight!

[TheBigJessie]

One word. Laying. Oh, were you? Where's the egg, then, pray?

[Tee2072]

"Yeah, people who mix up load and borrow..."

Do you mean loan?

If you're going to be pedantic...proofread!

[FrozenFlowers]

Which country is "this" one? We've been using "gotten" in Scotland all the time.

[TheBigJessie]

Yes, indeed I do. It's MN's fault for not having an edit function, so there!