[q1]> "Gotten" as the past participle of the verb "to get" was a part of English when English speakers[/q1]
[q1]> started colonising North America.[/q1]
Ah, yes. I remember reading somewhere that American English is more Shakesperean than modern British
English. The American settlers retained some of the old English words, such as 'fall' (for autumn),
which had become obsolete in Britain.
[q1]> For some reason, in Britain it was dropped, people started using "got" as the past tense and the[/q1]
[q1]> past participle, while "gotten" remained in standard use in what became the USA. Think of the verb[/q1]
[q1]> "to eat" where the past tense is "ate" but the part participle is "eaten", in both British and USA[/q1]
[q1]> English. If the same thing happened to this verb, we'd say things like "I had ate my dinner when[/q1]
[q1]> you phoned".[/q1]
But forget has forgot, forgotten as the past tense and past participle respectively. Aren't 'get'
and 'forget' related?
[q1]> So there's nothing ugly or ungrammatical or strange about "gotten", it just happens to be[/q1]
[q1]> something that is used in English in the USA, but is not in Britain. Or 'was'. Until a few years[/q1]
[q1]> ago, "gotten" really was never used by British people, and because we were unfamiliar with it, it[/q1]
[q1]> really did look and sound strange. But in the past few years I've noticed a growing tendency for[/q1]
[q1]> British people to use it, not in a conscious attempt to sound American (like when I'm in the USA[/q1]
[q1]> and have to remember to ask for "tomayto juice" because I get funny looks if I ask for "tomaato[/q1]
[q1]> juice"), but unconsciously because it now just seems the natural word to use.[/q1]
Funnily, when I was doing EFL at school, we were brainwashed into learning British English. One of
my classmates studied at an American school when he was a kid, so he had a pronounced American
accent. The teacher (who is Czech) was always irritated when he said the broad American 'can't'
(with the 'a' as in 'sad').
Btw do British people have trouble understanding spoken American English? I can understand British
English relatively well (unless someone speaks very fast, mumbles or has a strong unusual accent),
but I really have to concentrate hard on understanding American English. (I understand BBC much
better than CNN, for instance).
[q2]> > What will we get?[/q2]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> A reply to your article from me. Second prize, two replies.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> Actually, I think the "gotten" above may be ungrammatical in American English. Can you start a[/q1]
[q1]> sentence with a past participle? It would be like saying "Eaten my dinner today" rather than "Ate[/q1]
[q1]> my dinner today".[/q1]
Why not? Can't you say 'Been here before'?
The thing with ate/have eaten today is what EFL teachers get grilled about. In an interview for
a place on a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course, the interviewees had to show
how they would explain the difference between the following two sentences to a non-native
speaker of English:
I washed my car today. I have washed my car today.
M.