# The grammar of "got" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2022, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240 "2022-01-22T18:43:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/41 "2022-01-24T16:34:31Z")
I’d say that’s a specialized form of the usage that **eburacum45** alluded to: the noun “get” can be a (rather archaic) term for “offspring.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/42 "2022-01-24T16:58:17Z")
Anne McCaffrey wrote a long series of books about the Dragonriders of Pern. One of her short story collections was to be titled _Get of the Unicorn_, with Get meaning offspring, from beget. Nobody at the publisher remembered the obsolete term, and the book was published as the seemingly more logical _Get Off the Unicorn_. Reason #1,333,309 why writers hate publishers. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/43 "2022-01-24T17:11:42Z")
[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/GetOffTheUnicorn.jpg) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7c/GetOffTheUnicorn.jpg) I’m still laughing at that. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/44 "2022-01-24T17:22:19Z")
Is that the original instance of “_Fuck You, Auto-Correct_”? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/45 "2022-01-24T17:29:42Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Got, gotten is like many so-called American words, in that gotten was the original English that pretty much died out here but has lingered on in parts of North America. In my dialect, I might say something like: “Whenever I’ve eaten warm oysters, I’ve gotten sick.” Is there a form of “get” that you’d use in that sentence, or would you need to use a different word altogether? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/46 "2022-01-24T17:38:22Z")
Same here. Chicago. “Got” to mean "have’ is a pretty normal colloquial usage. “Aw, shit, I only got ten bucks on me.” “I got some news for you.” “Whatcha got?” “Got any more beer?” “Got milk?” 🙂 Sometimes I’ll sneak the _have_ or _'ve_ into it. Sometimes not. Sounds perfectly normal in my dialect, if not considered non-standard. My grammar school English teacher would not be happy, but I don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/47 "2022-01-24T18:19:34Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Is that the original instance of “ _Fuck You, Auto-Correct_ ”? It was 1977, so just an old-fashioned, numb-brain fuck-up. > [@pulykamell](#): > > My grammar school English teacher would not be happy, but I don’t care. She was trying to teach formal written English, because that’s what schools do. Spoken English, as every linguist knows, is a whole 'nother thing. I hope she knew the difference, but it’s possible she was brainwashed by the early century prescriptivist movement in her own schooling. Henry Watson Fowler wrote _A Dictionary of Modern English Usag_e in 1926, a 750-page, small print style guide that overwhelmed the competition. It went through a million reprintings, and was later adapted for American usage. People would just refer you to Fowler to settle any argument on how to write good. Interestingly, some of the purist idiocies - like never ending a sentence with a preposition - he called superstition, but somehow the prescriptivists just looked at what he said not to do and ignored the stuff he allowed. This attitude poisoned generations of schoolkids. Full disclosure: I was taught to be a prescriptivist and had to learn to otherwise as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/48 "2022-01-24T18:24:21Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Can’t ye, ye misbegotten get of a sea-dog? Archaic. I’m pretty sure that’s not part of any modern UK dialect (certainly not mine). ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/49 "2022-01-24T18:27:51Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > some of the purist idiocies - like never ending a sentence with a preposition - This begs for a Winston Churchill quote, who, when criticised for ending a sentence with a preposition, supposedly replied: “This is the type of errant pedantry up with which I will not put.” Might not be Churchill, lots of anecdotes are falsely attributed to him. But still nice. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/50 "2022-01-24T19:06:46Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > She was trying to teach formal written English, because that’s what schools do. Spoken English, as every linguist knows, is a whole 'nother thing. I hope she knew the difference, but it’s possible she was brainwashed by the early century prescriptivist movement in her own schooling. I’m pretty sure she thought we were lesser human beings for using improper grammar. That’s how about 2/3 of my grammar school teachers were. Very old school; some were nuns. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/51 "2022-01-24T19:42:21Z")
Don’t they have ‘speak like a pirate day’ round your way? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2022, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/52 "2022-01-24T21:02:34Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > “Whenever I’ve eaten warm oysters, I’ve gotten sick.” “Whenever I’ve eaten warm oysters, I’ve gotten sick.” “Whenever I’ve eaten warm oysters, I got sick.” Personally. I would just say: “Warm oysters make me sick.” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240/53 "2022-01-25T12:45:17Z")
But you’ve changed the meaning. “Whenever I’ve eaten warm oysters, I’ve gotten sick.” May imply coincidence. “Warm oysters make me sick.” Shows cause and effect. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-grammar-of-got/958240.md?page=2)