# What's the difference between "got" and "gotten" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 24, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661 "2011-10-24T18:36:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/1 "2011-10-24T18:36:29Z")
I’m reading Bill Bryson’s _Mother Tongue_, in which he briefly notes: - _…many Britons have to have the distinction between got and gotten explained to them…_ But he doesn’t go on to explain what the distinction actually _is_. I hadn’t been aware that there was a difference; I had always assumed that the two were interchangeable. Google doesn’t offer an explanation, just various pages with example sentences, which don’t clarify anything for me. Would the Dopers care to throw some light on the situation? ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/2 "2011-10-24T18:46:53Z")
I _think_ it’s something like this: in North America you can say, “I got” (past tense) and “I have gotten” (present perfect tense). In Britain, “gotten” is not used, and you say, “I have got”. ---
**Author:** ![newme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e0b2c6/32.png) [@newme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newme)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/3 "2011-10-24T18:50:50Z")
“have got” = have _I’ve got 20 unread emails in my inbox._ “have gotten” = received _I’ve gotten 50 emails already today, and its only 9:00 a.m_ ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/4 "2011-10-24T18:51:34Z")
Some good reading here: [Gotten vs. Got](http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/gotten.html) Gotten is basically used for when the non-possessive meanings of get are meant. “I’ve gotten a new car” has a slightly different meaning than “I’ve got a new car”. The latter implies I currently have it in my possession, while the former merely means I acquired one. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/5 "2011-10-24T18:52:03Z")
This is often given as an example of how US English is different from the mother tongue, but it’s actually us (Britons) that changed. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/6 "2011-10-24T18:56:45Z")
“I have got” (or “I’ve got”) means exactly the same as “I have.” I think adding the “got” is colloquial, not sure why we do it. “Gotten” is the past participle of “got” so is used for present perfect, as described by **Sunspace.** ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/7 "2011-10-24T23:05:45Z")
The difference between ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ is better known as the Atlantic Ocean. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/8 "2011-10-25T00:00:32Z")
It’s exactly the same as the difference between “ate” and “eaten”, or “broke” and “broken”. The former is the preterite, the latter is the past participle. For many words, these coincide, but for some, they don’t. In American English, the two don’t coincide for “get”. The one idiomatic wrinkle on top of this is that “has got” can be used, with the meaning “possesses”. This doesn’t follow from any more general principles (you can’t say “has ate”, for example); it’s just an idiomatic form that happens to exist in addition to everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Indistinguishable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/90ced4/32.png) [@Indistinguishable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indistinguishable)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/9 "2011-10-25T00:05:55Z")
(On the other hand, “has gotten” exists by general principles, as the perfect aspect form of “get”, in exactly the same way that “has eaten” exists as the perfect aspect form of “eat” or “has broken” exists as the perfect aspect form of “break”. Note also that “John has got” can be contracted to “John’s got”. Again, this isn’t necessarily true by general principle (you can’t contract the very similar “John has a shoe” to “John’s a shoe”, for example), but just happens to be true. You can also contract “John has gotten” to “John’s gotten”, by the same general principle that lets you contract “John has eaten” to “John’s eaten” or “John has broken” to “John’s broken” [of course, in each case, these contractions have the ambiguity that they could be expanded to use “is” instead of “has” as well, but that’s got nothing to do with anything].) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/10 "2011-10-25T00:51:23Z")
On the use of “-en” in forming the perfect tenses, I’ve noticed this: – Those regular verbs that use “-ed” to form the regular past tense, mostly also use “-ed” to form the perfect tenses. e.g.: John walked out. John has walked out. – All verbs that use anything other than “-ed” to form the regular past tense, mostly use “-en” to form the perfect tenses. e.g.: John ate. John has eaten. John rides the bike. John rode. John has ridden. On the one hand, I will note that a significant word in the above is “mostly”, English being as full of exceptions as it is. But can anybody think of any exceptions? – Can anyone name a verb with past tense “-ed” that does NOT also use “-ed” for the perfect? – Can anyone name a verb with past tense other than “-ed” that does NOT use “-en” (or at least something similar, like flew…flown) for the perfect? I wasn’t able to think of any, off-hand. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/11 "2011-10-25T01:11:42Z")
In Saskatchewan, there’s also the distinction between “bought” and “boughten”. “Boughten” is used almost entirely as an adjective. “That’s boughten bread.” =\> bread bought from the store, because I was too lazy/busy to bake some myself. Yes, it’s an implied criticism of the person who takes the easy way of going to the store, instead of the pioneer methods of self-sufficiency. Just tonight, the Piper Cub and I were making spaghetti with tomato sauce with tomatoes that he and Mrs Piper grew this summer, and and I caught myself complimenting him by saying “We’re making sauce with your home-grown tomatoes, not boughten tomatoes.” ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/12 "2011-10-25T01:48:52Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > – Can anyone name a verb with past tense other than “-ed” that does NOT use “-en” (or at least something similar, like flew…flown) for the perfect? > > I wasn’t able to think of any, off-hand. There are all kinds of examples for this: sing sang sung and all the other -ing -ang -ung verbs are perhaps the most common. Not to mention verbs like come, came, come that repeat the present tense or verbs like catch, caught, caught in which the past and perfect are the same. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/13 "2011-10-25T02:03:04Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > There are all kinds of examples for this: sing sang sung and all the other -ing -ang -ung verbs are perhaps the most common. Not to mention verbs like come, came, come that repeat the present tense or verbs like catch, caught, caught in which the past and perfect are the same. Okay, that’s half my question. But are there any verbs that have regular past tense with “-ed” and perfect tenses with “-en”? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/14 "2011-10-25T02:17:00Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > The difference between ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ is better known as the Atlantic Ocean. 🙂 Which makes perfect sense to my Scottish mother. She abhors the word “gotten” whereas I think it’s perfectly fine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/15 "2011-10-25T04:46:40Z")
“There ain’t no woman like the one-eyed got!” Unless she is be-gotten with a girl child plus 18 years. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/16 "2011-10-25T09:19:05Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > The difference between ‘got’ and ‘gotten’ is better known as the Atlantic Ocean. 🙂 I always think you can hear Alec Guinness cringe when he delivers Obi Wan Kenobi’s line “he thought your father should have stayed here and not gotten involved”. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/17 "2011-10-25T12:07:38Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > This is often given as an example of how US English is different from the mother tongue, but it’s actually us (Britons) that changed. But you forgot to change forget. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/18 "2011-10-25T12:56:37Z")
Compare to the verb “to forget” in British English. That verb has retained the old form: I forget I forgot I have forgotten I get I got I have gotten Just one of those ones we Brits let change/Americans hung on to. Edit: And I just saw Floater’s post after posting. Poo. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/19 "2011-10-25T15:00:13Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > In Saskatchewan, there’s also the distinction between “bought” and “boughten”. > > “Boughten” is used almost entirely as an adjective. “That’s boughten bread.” =\> bread bought from the store, because I was too lazy/busy to bake some myself. > > Yes, it’s an implied criticism of the person who takes the easy way of going to the store, instead of the pioneer methods of self-sufficiency. > > Just tonight, the Piper Cub and I were making spaghetti with tomato sauce with tomatoes that he and Mrs Piper grew this summer, and and I caught myself complimenting him by saying “We’re making sauce with your home-grown tomatoes, not boughten tomatoes.” I have heard the boughten construction on rare occasion in the US, too. But not in a critical way, more like, “Your church outfit (or other fancy clothes) looks boughten,” with an approving nod. Or if you’ve sewn an item of clothing, “It looks just boughten!” Rural use, definitely. ---
**Author:** ![Snupzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@Snupzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snupzilla)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661/20 "2011-10-25T23:51:27Z")
There isn’t a clean break, but I tend to use “have gotten” and “have got” to mean slightly different things. When the object is acquired by the subject of the sentence then “gotten” is preferred. > [@](#): > > I have gotten three A’s on my report card this semester But when the subject simply just possesses the object, I’d prefer “got”. > [@](#): > > I have got a three legged dog While in the first sentence with “gotten” I’d sometime use “got” instead, I’d never use “gotten” in the second sentence. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-got-and-gotten/600661.md?page=2)