got/gotten

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Angliholic  #479758  Thu, 21 Feb 08 12:06 PM

It appeared as if it (the butterfly) had gotten as far as it could and it couldn't go any further.

 

 

Hi,

Is "gotten" in the above interchangeable with "got?" Thanks.

  
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Fandorin  #479761  Thu, 21 Feb 08 12:15 PM
Hi. Yes, both of the words may be used. Simply "have(has) got" tend to be used side by side with have (has,had).

have(had,has) got = have(has,had). But the expression "had got" is rarely used in contemporary grammar.

 

  
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Yankee  #479768  Thu, 21 Feb 08 12:26 PM
Hi Angliholic

In American English, 'gotten' is the past participle of 'get'.   I believe that the usual past participle of 'get' in BE would be 'got'.

  
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Yankee  #479779  Thu, 21 Feb 08 12:42 PM

Fandorin
Hi. Yes, both of the words may be used. Simply "have(has) got" tend to be used side by side with have (has,had).

have(had,has) got = have(has,had). But the expression "had got" is rarely used in contemporary grammar.


Hi Fandorin

You seem to be mixing things up.

Angliholic's sentence is not an example of the idiomatic "to have got", which means basically the same thing as "to have" or "to possess".
In that idiom, it is not possible to change the word 'got' to 'gotten' -- not even in American English.  It would be unusual to find "to have got" used in the past tense (i.e. had got).


Angliholic's sentence uses the verb "to get" in the past perfect.  To form the past perfect of the verb "to get", you need had+gotten in AmE or  had+got in BE.
The past perfect of the verb "to get" is in current use and is used just as often as the past perfect of any other verb.
  
Fandorin  #480154  Fri, 22 Feb 08 07:31 AM

Fandorin
Hi. Yes, both of the words may be used. Simply "have(has) got" tend to be used side by side with have (has,had).

have(had,has) got = have(has,had). But the expression "had got" is rarely used in contemporary grammar.

 

I agree with you wholly, Yankee. Simply I wanted to explain the difference between such construction. Thanks for attention.

  
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