![]() Kory Stamper, a lexicographer here, is very much part of the vanguard of word-nerd celebrities. #Dictionaries merriam serialIts editors star in online videos on hot-button topics like the serial comma, gender pronouns and the dreaded “irregardless.” Its Twitter feed has become a viral sensation, offering witty - and sometimes pointedly political - commentary on the news of the day. Merriam-Webster, the oldest dictionary publisher in America, has turned itself into a social media powerhouse over the past few years. June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.SPRINGFIELD, Mass. In more formal usage, use “have” for the present tense, “got” for the simple past and “have gotten” for the perfect tense. But if you want an easy rule, just do what I do: Avoid “I got.” Use “have got” only in informal situations. “However much money you have gotten from Thaw, it is only as much as he wanted to give you” uses “gotten” to mean you acquired something. Here are Merriam’s examples: “I haven’t got a dime myself” uses “got” to mean you have something. “To many - perhaps most - Americans, ‘have got’ denotes mere possession, while ‘have gotten’ denotes obtaining,” writes Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (which despite the name is a usage guide, not a dictionary, and not the same as Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary cited above). They can also be used in the present to talk about possessing something or obtaining it. It means the same as “have gotten.” British speakers are more prone to “have got” in this sense, while Americans are more inclined to use “have gotten.”īut “have got” and “have gotten” aren’t just for the past tense. So you could say that, in the past, you have got paid. However, “got” is also acceptable as a past participle. “Got” is the simple past tense of “get,” and “gotten” is the past participle. Some people say it should be “have gotten.” Others say “have gotten” is wrong and it should be “have got.” In fact, both forms are usually fine. It’s only wrong(ish) in cases where you’re using “got” like an auxiliary verb - especially to introduce an infinitive verb like “to go.”Įven when you mean it as a form of “get,” the phrase “have got” is controversial. When you mean the verb “get” in the past tense, “I got” is correct. The advice from dictionaries and language experts on the difference between “adverse” and “averse” leaves grammar columnist June Casagrande wanting.īut “I got” isn’t always wrong. Opinion A Word, Please: She’s adverse and averse to using these words in equal measure But when you want your English to be better than just OK, you should eschew “I have got” and stick with the simpler and 100% grammatical “I have.” It means that a construction that’s not grammatical is still OK because it’s standard. The best excuse I can find for this use of “got” comes from me personally: When people say, “I got to go,” I assume they’re saying “I’ve” instead of “I” and just glossing over the “ve.” That would be fine because “I’ve got to go,” a contracted form of “I have got to go,” uses “have got” as an idiom meaning “have,” according to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, and it’s “used in present tense situations usually in informal writing and in ordinary speech.” And according to dictionaries, “got” - the past tense of “get” - doesn’t mean “must” or “have to.” So “I got to go” isn’t a dictionary-sanctioned way of saying “I have to go” or “I must go.” Not so with “I got to go.” I scoured my reference books to find a justification for this phrasing and came up empty-handed. If a word or phrase is so common that you’ve developed a conditioned response to it, that means that it’s probably standard usage - and therefore acceptable. The reason: Their peeves usually put me in the awkward position of having to tell them they’re wrong. When a reader tells me something makes them cringe, I cringe. “Is there a separate usage for ‘have’ and ‘got’? I’m so confused.” I got to go!’ Don’t I have to go?” Grant in Orange County, asked in an email. “My wife and I cringe at the use of … ‘got’ in daily language: ‘I’m late. ![]()
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