Pedants' corner
Gotten - Why?!
butterpuffed · 21/08/2020 19:05
It's been used in the States for quite a while and seems normal when you hear Americans saying it but it's creeping over here now.
He's gotten himself some new friends...
They'd never gotten used to living there...
It really winds me up!
StealthNinjaMum · 21/08/2020 19:31
Ooh, this is really interesting. For some irrational reason I have always hated ‘gotten’, I never knew it was originally English.
In general I dislike the word ‘got’ as it often doesn’t add much to a sentence eg ‘I have a got a cold’ or ‘I have a cold’. I also really dislike ‘get’ in the ‘can I get a coffee?’ request in a cafe. Whenever I hear someone say that I want to shout ‘no you can’t get the coffee, that would be rude to jump over the counter and help yourself, you mean you would like the barista to get you a coffee.’
AskingQuestionsAllTheTime · 23/09/2020 14:29
I don't like "got" as a stand-in for another word, as a general thing. I have caught a cold, rather than I have got one, I have bought a cabbage rather than I have got one, I have fetched a chair rather than I have got one.
Got seems to have become just a sort of shorthand catch-all word, and using one that is more precise is more fun as far as I am concerned.
"Gotten" doesn't bother me apart from wishing the person using it had used a different word altogether: "I've gotten all het up" could easily be "I've become all het up", as an example.
Babdoc · 08/10/2020 15:31
We still use gotten in misbegotten and forgotten. It probably came from Germany with the Saxons, as German verbs take -en endings.
When I was in infant school, nearly 60 years ago, our teacher wrote an essay on the blackboard where “got” was used multiple times in every sentence. Our task was to rewrite the whole thing, using various ( and better) replacements for “got”.
I’ve felt that I should avoid its use ever since!
Deux · 08/10/2020 15:40
It’s never gone away in much/most of Scotland. Given the amount of emigration from Scotland and Ireland to America it’s no surprise gotten made it there.
Bit like Halloween. Every year someone starts a thread on how this awful American tradition has made it across the pond yet my 83 year old father went out guising at Halloween.
I use gotten the whole time.
GreyishDays · 18/11/2020 19:12
@Babdoc
When I was in infant school, nearly 60 years ago, our teacher wrote an essay on the blackboard where “got” was used multiple times in every sentence. Our task was to rewrite the whole thing, using various ( and better) replacements for “got”.
I’ve felt that I should avoid its use ever since!
We were told at school to avoid it!
ExpensivelyDecorated · 18/11/2020 19:25
@jessstan1
I don't mind gotten too much but gift used as a verb really irritates me and I am noticing it more and more.
VanillaAndOrange · 15/02/2021 20:05
In general I dislike the word ‘got’ as it often doesn’t add much to a sentence eg ‘I have a got a cold’ or ‘I have a cold’.
"I have a cold" sounds American to me, just like "gotten" (I'm fully prepared for someone to tell me that it, too, is normal in some regions of the UK).
JosephFrancis · 23/10/2022 07:16
It's quite commonly used in my part of the UK. I think there are a lot of words used in certain pockets of the British Isles that fell out of common usage in the last 300 years or so. I suppose it's almost a colloquialism now, even though it's a past participle and grammatically correct. It makes sense that Americans would use it, since it would have been used around the time America was colonised, and there are a lot of things considered to be Americanisms which are actually Middle English ways of speaking. Such as saying "I guess so" in place of "I think so".
Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 23/10/2022 07:28
It's in the King James Bible.
Genesis chapter 4 verse 1. (and others)
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
However, the phrase 'pisseth against the wall' is also in the KJV, so perhaps it doesn't count for much. 🤣
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