Thankyou and gotten

[Salome61]

Hello, my son's girlfriend of ten years plus writes thank you as 'thankyou'. She has also used 'gotten' lately.

Would you correct her?

Hell no. I have friends who say 'should of' and just grit my teeth in silent fury. I corrected a teacher once as a child and still cringe at the memory (even though I was technically right, the best sort of right).

I’d shoot her.

You’re fighting a losing battle with gotten, it’s now very common in the UK, and if she’s writing to thank you, you should be pleased at her manners.

Honestly, language evolves. Even ‘stiff upper lip’ was originally an American phrase.

‘Thankyou’ is just illiterate. It would be kind to point out that error, gently.

But I can live with ‘gotten’. It has a history.

Gotten was English, it was taken by the British to America where it persists but evolved to 'got' in the UK, (it lives on here in forgotten, misbegotten etc). gotten isn't wrong, just archaic.

Calling it archaic isn’t quite right because it didn’t die out everywhere on this side of the Atlantic. Gotten continued to be widely used in Ireland, parts of Scotland and Northern England…so it depends on where the girlfriend is from too. Just because you’re not accustomed to a word doesn’t make it wrong, OP. People can be very snobbish about gotten being an Americanism, but often it isn’t a reintroduction at all.

Thank you all for replying. I've just seen her say it on her Mum's FB page and she hasn't made any comment.

I'm a Londoner in the NE and used to be a typing teacher in the dark ages where 'proof reading' was a skill we encouraged. My son and his girlfriend are expecting my first grand child and no doubt he will send me 'thankyou' letters, argh! I should be 'greatfu'l ... another one that makes me cringe!

... and, at this time of year, in 'begotten not created' (often with the accent in the wrong place).

No, I wouldn’t but if I could drop in it any other way, I would.

I have a couple of friends who text ‘would of/could of’ 🤪

Now, my phone autocorrects this to ‘have’, wtf doesn’t theirs? I just seethe and judge them silently.

I am still thinking about Denizenofshame’s comment about ‘illiterate’. ☹️

Why? Writing ‘thankyou’ is illiterate.

I prefer to be corrected about misspelling or misuse or mispronunciation - as long as it’s helpful and not ridicule.

Yes ‘thankyou ‘ is annoying.

When the baby is born will they be saying it ‘wants fed’ ? That one really grinds my gears.

My son is very defensive of her and I do tread carefully. I suggested a Celtic name his late Dad had really liked and when he told her apparently she thought I’d invented it.

I haven’t heard it yet but I might in the future. Such an ugly saying.

Thank you for posting everyone.

I am now going to take the hem of my dress up on my sewing machine. First time I’ve used it in 9 years.

Happy New Year!

My 10yr old speaks very standard English, except he has always used gotten. I now quite like it.

My guess as to why gotten has stuck, when no one around him uses it, is that it completes a grammatical pattern.

I rose, I have risen
I broke, I have broken
I froze, I have frozen
I got, I have got (?)

That doesn’t explain why it fell out of use in the first place though.

I really don’t think you can - especially as it’s not a post to you

you don’t need to die on this hill

be grateful they are going to “thankyou”

Correct her? nope.

Gotten I believe (and in fact a PP points this out) is old English anyway – also commonly used in America.

Thankyou is acceptable as a noun or a compound adjective (thankyou letter). Tho I agree if you are saying "Thank you for the gift" it’s two words for sure.

(I can't believe you suggested a baby name to them btw!)

Thank you - my son is autistic and was very stressed about name choices, I only told him his late Dad’s two favourites from 32 years ago and that we ended up with six names in a clean paper sick bowl😀No intention of influencing their choices

No, thankyou is not acceptable in any part of speech. It’s never “thankyou letter”.

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/thankyou

Collins thinks it’s OK. I mean it’s not what I would write but I see worse manglings of English on a daily.

'Wants fed' is a form of words in common usage in Scotland and, as such, is part of a perfectly valid regional dialect.

I'm sorry it grinds your gears (which is a relatively new saying in UK English - I wonder where it came from)

Collins can kiss my hairy ass....

also commonly used in America

To be specific, it's standard American English.

Is this the excuse for would of and so on with all its variants, all the examples of people defiantly doing something, liking "been apart" of someone's celebration and putting something in the top draw? That's evolution?

I’ve been on FB marketplace today. Lots of ‘dinning tables’ and some are ‘bran new’!

A common one on Mumsnet is “stop with”. Why not just stop doing x , rather than stop with doing x?