GOT vs. GOTTEN - What's the difference? - English Grammar

Hello and welcome. My name is Ganesh

I'm from LearnEnglishLab.com and in this lesson we're going to talk about

the difference between got and gotten. Now if you ask people, many of them including

many teachers will tell you one of two things:

they'll either tell you that got is right and gotten is wrong or they'll tell

you that got is British and gotten is American. Who is correct?

As it turns out, both of those views are kind of correct because the word gotten

is only used in American and Canadian English

it's not used in British or Australian English. Now that also means that if

you're a speaker of or if you're learning

British English or, say, New Zealand English then gotten is wrong in your

variety of English. So gotten is wrong for you

Now if you're only interested in British English or Australian English or New

Zealand English the good news for you is you don't have to worry about the word

gotten. For the rest of your life you can just use got. But if you want to learn

American English or if you want to communicate with speakers of American or

Canadian English then it's important for you to know the difference between got

and gotten.

Now let's back up for a moment and let's be clear what we're talking about

Take a look at this chart I have over here

Now as you can see for the most part this chart looks exactly the same

so in the present tense everybody says get and in the past tense as well

the common form is got. So a Brit would say "I got my salary yesterday" and an

American would also say "I got my salary yesterday"

so you see there's no difference there. These forms are common in both the

present and the past tense

the difference is when you look at the past participle form of the verb get

Here BrE means British English and in British English the past participle of

get is got and the past participle in American English is gotten - remember that

every verb has three forms present. past. past participle - like do,

did, and done. Done is that third form - that past participle form. In the same way

go, went, gone are the three forms of the verb go

so gone is the past participle. In the same way gotten is the past participle

of get in American English and got is in British English

Pretty simple right? Well actually the picture is a little more complicated

than that

Take a look at these examples: I've got interested in mountain climbing

this sentence is in British English. In American English

I've gotten interested in mountain climbing. So here we are using gotten

because this is the past participle of get. The sentences in the present perfect

tense

so we're using gotten. But take a look at this sentence

I've got a question. This is British English but in American English the

sentence is exactly the same

I've got a question. Or how about this example

Lois says she's got to leave. This is the same in British and in American English

But how can that be?

We just discussed that in American English we use gotten but I just showed

you two examples where in American English

we're using got as the past participle. Well all that confusion stems from the

fact that the verb get has many meanings

Now if you take your dictionary and you go to the entry on get

you will see many many different meanings. Well thankfully for us

we only need to worry about five meetings. Alright you'll see here that

I have another chart and I've written gotten up here and got over here

that's because when we use the verb get in any of these meanings

we use gotten. So when we say get to mean

receive or obtain something or we say get to mean become or to enter a place or

move then we use gotten as the past participle form

take a look at these examples: They've gotten a lot of complaints about their

pizzas lately

now in the sentence we're using gotten to mean

receive so when I say they've gotten a lot of complaints

I mean they've received a lot of complaints about their pizzas. In this next example

Todd has gotten a lot more confident since his last presentation. Here the

meaning is become so Todd has become a lot more confident since his

last presentation. In this example: I had just gotten into my hotel room when I

heard footsteps on the corridor. Here when I say gotten into

I mean enter so I had just entered my hotel room when I heard footsteps on the

corridor

But when we use get to mean

possess like when we say 'have got': I've something or when we use get to mean

must. so I've got to go for example. In those cases we don't use gotten even in

American English we use got. Have a look at these examples: We've got two kids. Here

what I'm saying is that we have two kids. Have got is just a way of saying have in

this sentence

That's why we're not using gotten. Now this form is a little less common in

American English

we usually just say We have two kids but you can say we've got that's not wrong

and in this next example: If you want to retire at 50

you've got to start saving up now. Here got to means must or you should

so you should start saving up now or you must start saving up now

can both be used in the place of got to. In our original examples here's the

first one: I've gotten interested in mountain climbing

can you see why we're using gotten here? We're using it because I'm saying

I've become interested. In the second example

I've got a question. Now this is in American English

we're using got or rather have got to mean have: I have a question

And in the third example Lois says she's got to leave. Here got to means she has

to leave or she must leave

OK I hope that clarifies the difference between God and gotten for

you

Now let me give you a small test to see if you can use got and gotten correctly

Now on the screen I've got five sentences and your job is to fill the

blank in each one with got or gotten. Take a moment to pause this video and

think about your answers. When you're ready

resume the video and check your answers. Alright let's discuss them

Number one is: The conference room looks terrible

We've got to repaint it. We're using got here because the meaning is must or we

have to repaint it

Number two: Allen has gotten into a lot of debt in the past couple of years

because of his struggling business here we are using gotten because the meaning

here is to enter so he's entered into a lot of debt

Number three: Ruth has got a

beautiful swimming pool in her backyard

We're using got here because has got means to have so Ruth has a beautiful

swimming pool in her backyard. number four: My daughter has gotten really good

grades this year

I'm so happy. In this sentence, we're using gotten because the meaning is received

My daughter has received really good grades. And in this last sentence

I used to suck at golf but I've gotten a lot better at it now with practice. Here

we're using gotten because the meaning is become. Alright I hope you got all of

those answers correct

just remember that gotten is only used in American English. If you're learning

or speaking British English or Australian English or any other variety

just use got all the time. Alright I hope you enjoyed this lesson

I'll see you in another lesson soon