Is 'gotten' a proper word?

Hunchback

Bsg1974 wrote: »

The correct English would be,"If he hadn't got into the car..."

I think to say '...if he didn't get into...' sounds less hassly

pickarooney

Bsg1974 wrote: »

Gotten is not a word! Got is not the present possessive, "have" is. "Have got" is a nonsense. You "have" something, you do not "have got" it! The (non) word "gotten" presumes that got is the present tense, which it is not, it is the past tense e.g."I got it from the shop". Try saying "I got it" rather than "I had gotten it". "Gotten" is not English, never has been, never will be. If Americans stopped bastardising the English language there wouldn't be this confusion. There is no "gotten" or "tooken" or "boughten", all words I have heard on American T.V. "Gotten" is not the past participate of "got" because "got" is already a past tense word. I've also heard " I don't got" on American T.V. - come one, please...
Do not check this with the American Grammar Society, check it with the British Grammar Society, America has been teaching "bad" English for many, many years! If anyone would like to discuss any aspects of the American language any further or require clarification please do not hesitate.

If by 'bastardising' you mean 'preserving', I agree. Otherwise you're just being needlessly precious, pompous and wrong.

Bsg1974

There's no debate, gotten isn't an English word and seeing as Americans are supposed to speak English, means (The British Grammar Society) and I are right!! Don't take my word for it, ask them! We appease America way too much and this is a prime example. As I've already stated, "got" is not the present possessive. You can say "I could have got one" or " I got one", but not "I've got one". The correct grammer is "I have one". You're trying to make a past tense word "got" errr...well... more past tense (which makes no sense...past tense is past tense), by sticking "(t)en" on the end is nonsense. Americans like to "dumb down" the English language e.g. "labo(u)r", because they're lazy and stupid and add words like the "at" in "where are you at"! "where are you" has been sufficient for a very long time!

pickarooney

Bsg1974 wrote: »

There's no debate, gotten isn't an English word and seeing as Americans are supposed to speak English, means (The British Grammar Society) and I are right!! Don't take my word for it, ask them! We appease America way too much and this is a prime example. As I've already stated, "got" is not the present possessive. You can say "I could have got one" or " I got one", but not "I've got one". The correct grammer is "I have one". You're trying to make a past tense word "got" errr...well... more past tense (which makes no sense...past tense is past tense), by sticking "(t)en" on the end is nonsense. Americans like to "dumb down" the English language e.g. "labo(u)r", because they're lazy and stupid and add words like the "at" in "where are you at"! "where are you" has been sufficient for a very long time!

Honestly, posts like this just make you look like an ill-mannered oik. There's obviously no use in pointing out how spectacularly wrong you are if this is the sort of guff you're going to come out with.

Kinski

Bsg1974 wrote: »

Gotten is not a word! Got is not the present possessive, "have" is. "Have got" is a nonsense. You "have" something, you do not "have got" it! The (non) word "gotten" presumes that got is the present tense, which it is not, it is the past tense e.g."I got it from the shop". Try saying "I got it" rather than "I had gotten it". "Gotten" is not English, never has been, never will be. If Americans stopped bastardising the English language there wouldn't be this confusion. There is no "gotten" or "tooken" or "boughten", all words I have heard on American T.V. "Gotten" is not the past participate of "got" because "got" is already a past tense word. I've also heard " I don't got" on American T.V. - come one, please...
Do not check this with the American Grammar Society, check it with the British Grammar Society, America has been teaching "bad" English for many, many years! If anyone would like to discuss any aspects of the American language any further or require clarification please do not hesitate.

Bumping an almost decade-old thread on this? Someone must have gotten a lot of time on their hands.

slowburner

Oscar Wilde : 'We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.' (1887)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/mind-your-language/2010/nov/26/americanisms-english-mind-your-language

'England and America are two countries separated by a common language.'
(Shaw or Churchill?)

tac foley

hedgetrimmer wrote: »

It's probably leftover from the Anglo Saxon Word "getten" which means "to have received" or "to receive" depending on the context of the sence

That is what I was taught at school by our English teachers. As in 'Ill-gotten gains' and 'only begotten Son' et al.

As many language specialists would quickly remind you, the English language took a real hit during the 17th century - the Jamesian emmigrants to the New World took Elizabethan English with them as well as the much of the thenprevalent/common spelling of words like 'armour' and 'colour' and 'dolour' [see Shakespeare's spellings of these words], while the French wife/wives of contemporary of English monarchs were responsible for a change in the English language as spoken there by the dictionary compilers of the day - Samuel Pepys and so on - added 'Frenchified' spellings to those common words - hence 'defence/defense' and most of the others of a similar ilk.

In Canada we do not use many of the perceived Americanisms - even the common words like schedule/schedule - AM sKedule - are pronounced as in the English version - sHedule. 'Gotten' in all its forms is not usual, either. We still spell colour, armour, and so on just like you do, although for some reason 'Defence' is becoming Americanised more and more...

tac

Ellis Dee

I see far too many wealthy people all around me enjoying their ill-gotten gains. :eek:

Or has that now become ill-got gains?

pickarooney

Samuel Pepys and so on - added 'Frenchified' spellings to those common words - hence 'defence/defense' and most of the others of a similar ilk

Défense has an S in French, though.

tac foley wrote: »

In Canada we do not use many of the perceived Americanisms - even the common words like schedule/schedule - AM sKedule - are pronounced as in the English version - sHedule.

And yet...

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=37346&p=275603#post275603



Schedule is one of those words (like 'either') that I've no idea of my own pronunciation of. It seems logical to use a 'sk' sound

slowburner

For some odd reason, I (nearly) always say 'nyther' instead of 'neether', but I prefer 'eether' to 'eyther'.
No idea why.

I would opt for the hard 'c' in schedule, as in chasm and chiropractor, rather than cheek and choke.
'Shedyule' sounds like a Christmas tree in a timber building.

tac foley

In Ontario we say nEEther, but in BC it's EYEther.

Pomahto/TOpayto, or whatever.

I could care less what they say in Quebéc/I couldn't care less what they say in Quebéc.

You choose.

tac

Enkidu

Bsg1974 wrote: »

There's no debate, gotten isn't an English word and seeing as Americans are supposed to speak English, means (The British Grammar Society) and I are right!! Don't take my word for it, ask them! We appease America way too much and this is a prime example. As I've already stated, "got" is not the present possessive. You can say "I could have got one" or " I got one", but not "I've got one". The correct grammer is "I have one". You're trying to make a past tense word "got" errr...well... more past tense (which makes no sense...past tense is past tense), by sticking "(t)en" on the end is nonsense. Americans like to "dumb down" the English language e.g. "labo(u)r", because they're lazy and stupid and add words like the "at" in "where are you at"! "where are you" has been sufficient for a very long time!

This is complete garbage. You have no idea what certain grammatical terms mean and also seem to have made up your own (present possessive isn't a term).

It's simple enough. Get is a verb with several meanings, with past "got" and present participle "getting".

Its past participle was originally "gotten", which is completely regular (broke -> broken). However English has several classes of verbs, which form their past participles different ways. For some verbs the past participle is identical to their simple past (or preterite, which ever name you prefer) for example

smoke -> smoked (identical to the simple past "smoked").

In American English "got" stayed in its original conjugation class, in modern British English it drifted to another, the class where the past participle is identical to the simple past.

So the Americans are hardly dumbing down English.