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Is 'gotten' the past tense form of 'got' or is there even a word gotten?

tchrist
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Shonima Nandakumar
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1 Answers1

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Got is already a past tense. It is the past of 'get'. I got some bread at the shop, tells of something that happened in the past.

Got is both a past tense and a past participle. In its past participle form, I have got a blue car, got signifies possession - I am in possession of a blue car

Thus far all of the above is the same both in Britain and America.

Where got refers to the process of acquisition, in the perfect and pluperfect Americans say I have just gotten a copy from the library, whilst we would use got. This also applies in reported speech She told me she had gotten married versus British She told me she had got married.

When it comes to direct reporting of acquisition, where Americans will say: Since we last met I have gotten anew car, British will often avoid got altogether and say something like: Since we last met I have acquired/bought/obtained a new car.

WS2
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  • Could you please explain my reported speech doubt in the comment above? I want to know whether got /had got is used. – Shonima Nandakumar Dec 14 '14 at 16:05
  • Yes. In the reported case Americans would use gotten. He told me that he had gotten the book yesterday. In Britain we would use got in that instance. And this needs to be added to my reply above - i.e. the reported speech case. – WS2 Dec 14 '14 at 16:09
  • I understood about the got part I want to know whether its:he said that he had got the book or is it :he said that he got the book? – Shonima Nandakumar Dec 14 '14 at 16:12
  • @ShonimaNandakumar If you are reporting a past speech of his then it's: He said that he had got the book. – WS2 Dec 14 '14 at 16:23
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    It should probably be noted that not even the English have forgotten *“ill-gotten gains”* and other similar misbegotten variants, such as when Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote in Maud ɪ. ɪᴠ. iii: “Your father has wealth well-gotten, and I am nameless and poor.” Another only-remembered-in-America ‑en word is the relic form store-*boughten* which opposes home-made and is preserved now only in certain regional dialects but was once more widespread and even standard. – tchrist Dec 14 '14 at 16:35
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    Whilst in Britain the form shop-bought used to be used, but has mostly disappeared. But store-boughten is interesting. I had not previously heard that. – WS2 Dec 14 '14 at 16:58
  • Would the reason for America having adopted the -en (*gotten, boughten etc) be that it was the language of the Bible, do you think? Are there any other 17th century forms which survive, which we in Britain may have lost? – WS2 Dec 14 '14 at 20:33
  • @tchrist I have just been listening to a BBC Radio programme on the history of Christmas music. The carol Ding Dong Merrily on High was mentioned. It was apparently a 16th century French dance tune. The modern words were composed in the 19th century and it didn't get into hymnals until 1924. But the composer introduced phrasing like 'let steeple bells be swungen', just to give it that mystical past appeal. So much of medieval Europe was simply invented in the 19th century! – WS2 Dec 17 '14 at 22:25