You’ve Got Mail. America’s Got Talent. I Got You, Babe. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Maybe you got mail. Or maybe you have mail. But you don’t got mail!
Maybe America got talent. Or maybe (more likely) it has talent. But it don’t got talent.
Maybe I got you. And now, maybe I have you. But I don’t got you!
Got and have are two different verbs. And actually, the verb is get, not got. To get is to obtain something. To have something is to already possess it. So, if you got a dog, now you have a dog.
Let’s review the tenses and straighten this out.
Present Tense Form:
I get a dog (or I am getting a dog).
I have a dog.
Past Tense Form:
I got a dog.
I had a dog.
Past Participle Form:
I have gotten a dog.
I have had a dog.
So remember if you use got, it is the past tense of get. You can’t use it in the present tense.
Got it???
“You’ve got mail”, and “America’s got talent” are fine. These forms are used on both sides of the Atlantic and don’t break any grammatical rules. “Got” and “have” have slightly different meanings in different contexts. “America’s got talent” means “America has got talent”. “Has got” may be technically redundant, but this is not a breach of grammar and is often done for emphasis. It is true we don’t say “We don’t got any”, but that is a different issue. “Got means “obtained” and “have” means something that is already in your possession. We wouldn’t say “We don’t obtained any” but we would say that “America has obtained talent”.
Your point is well taken, but I think we really mean America Has Talent, rather than has obtained talent.
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In a nutshell, there is no such word as got.
I think there is. It’s in the dictionary! It is just overused and used in the wrong context.
The present perfect is not a British construct. In US English we retain gotten as a passive participle of get. In British English it has been lost. However, US English also has the passive participle got. When Americans use got and gotten in the present perfect, there is a distinction in meaning:
In US English we can say “I have gotten a present” and we can say “I have got a present (I’ve got a present).” The sentence with gotten stresses receiving the present; the sentence with got stresses having the present. Once I’ve gotten it, I’ve got it! Have got means have. Have gotten means have received.
I imagine the British understand the distinction from context, but Americans find have got awkward when it means have received and prefer gotten.
When get is used to mean have in the present perfect, of course, do cannot be used. That is an error that is heard quite a lot: Do you got? I don’t got. These are just errors.
You are correct. However,I “have got a present” really means the same (or very close) as I “have a present.”
Arlene, please tell us what is wrong with asking, ‘How many siblings have you got’?
Is it really wrong, or does it just sound better to ask, “How many siblings do you have’?
Thank you.
Well, using the helping verb “have” with “got” makes it a present perfect tense, which is actually a past-type tense. For example, I have eaten all the cookies. I have got just doesn’t make sense to me (although it may be OK) because it has no connection to the past. It means “I have.” Or it means, I have gotten, which is the correct past participle. So, I would stick with “do you have.”
My grandmother used to correct me when I said “got.” “You dasn’t say got,” she’d tell me, “it’s not proper.” (She wasn’t British, but from an immigrant family in NY) I’ve felt guilty about using the word got ever since.
Smart grandmother!
Hi, Arlene,
Interesting blog! And then of course there’s “get” in the sense of “He really gets me,” meaning, “He really understands me.” And there’s “get” as a noun, meaning a celebrity interview, as in, “Diane Sawyer snags some great gets!” LindaJay
Yes, there is the more colloquial “get” meaning understand….I didn’t deal with that one! And the interview term is interesting! Gotta get get!
Hi Arlene,
I don’t quite agree with your intorduction: “You’ve got mail” isn’t wrong, as “have got” rightly indicates “obtained/received/in your possession”. The mistake would be “You got mail” along the lines of the two examples which follow.
On the other hand we sometimes use shortened versions; e.g. after a job interview: “Got the job?” (Have you got the job? intended as a genuine question) or maybe with a degree of bitterness from a rival applicant: “Got the job then?” (Not meant as a question).Get my point?
I’d like your return comments
Kind regards
CB
You “have got” mail is not correct; it would be you “have gotten” mail. As far as the use of “got” in conversation, yes, we do use it informally in conversation.
Arlene, in British English, one would say “have got” instead of “have gotten” (get-got-got vs get-got-gotten): e.g. You have got mail (in the sense “you have received”). Br.En. also uses “have got” instead of “have”: e.g. How many siblings have you got? I have got two brothers and one sister.
Claudine, the example “You got mail” is perfectly acceptable in American English, as in “You received mail”, as they often use the Past Simple tense instead of the Present Perfect (I just came back vs I’ve just come back).
Arlene: The verb tense “I have got” as far as I know is a British English construct. I don’t think BE uses ‘gotten’, so I think both are allowed. The Oxford dictionary cites this point. But, then, this is a US grammar blog so when in Rome….!!
Yes, apparently Britain does not use gotten, although some people say it is actually from the British. I am just trying to keep track of American grammar!
Yes, I know that gotten is an American usage. What I was most trying to get across was that we don’t say “We don’t got any.” However, in American usages, I think my conjugations are correct.