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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

174 replies

BonnyDay · 22/09/2012 08:46

In this country ?

OP posts:
Proudnscary · 22/09/2012 08:47

Nope. I hate it too.

FredFredGeorge · 22/09/2012 08:48

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

SomersetONeil · 22/09/2012 08:49

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

RaisinDEtre · 22/09/2012 08:51

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

meditrina · 22/09/2012 08:51

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 · 22/09/2012 08:52

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 · 22/09/2012 08:52

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

TheBigJessie · 22/09/2012 08:53

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 · 22/09/2012 08:54

Except language evolves. And sometimes goes backwards.

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

TheBigJessie · 22/09/2012 08:56

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

honeytea · 22/09/2012 09:00

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 · 22/09/2012 09:03

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 · 22/09/2012 09:05

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

TheBigJessie · 22/09/2012 09:08

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 · 22/09/2012 09:08

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

PseudoBadger · 22/09/2012 09:10

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 · 22/09/2012 09:18

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 · 22/09/2012 09:20

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

aldiwhore · 22/09/2012 09:24

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 · 22/09/2012 09:26

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

TheBigJessie · 22/09/2012 09:30

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 · 22/09/2012 09:32

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

Tee2072 · 22/09/2012 09:32

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

Do you mean loan?

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

FrozenFlowers · 22/09/2012 09:35

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

TheBigJessie · 22/09/2012 09:37

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

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