Okay, I say "gotten". Sometimes. When I'm babbling. But in writing, or speaking to people I don't know, I usually squirm my phrasing around to avoid it, because it just sounds so weird. So: She had gotten. Totally wrong, or just feels that way? Regionalism? Baby talk? What do you think?

I found the following two references that seem to indicate that "gotten" is perfectly acceptable in American English. I've read a variety of sources that indicate that "gotten" fell from usage in England approximately 300 years ago, but that we here in the "colonies" continued to use it as an irregular past tense of "get."

http://www.reference.com/motif/reference/is-gotten-grammatically-correct

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/605/01/

I, myself, have used "gotten" for most of my life and never been faced with any problems as a result. Given that we both live in Michigan, I'm betting that we also learned by pretty much the same curriculum in English - so I'm fairly sure that "gotten" is okay to use here in the States.

Hope that helps!!

~~Wiccan~~

You are the smartest in all the land, Wiccan, and always help me learn! You rock!

Gotten is the past participle of get, so even though it sounds weird, it is correct when speaking about obtaining something, moving something, or to become.

Sometimes people will say something like, "We have got to get this done," and it is technically correct, but the better way of saying it would be, "We must get this done."

Here's a link to a site that gives some better examples.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/gotten.html

knifethrower wrote:
You are the smartest in all the land, Wiccan, and always help me learn! You rock!



I'm just glad I could help alleviate some of the concern!

~~me~~

CritterWhisperer wrote:
Gotten is the past participle of get, so even though it sounds weird, it is correct when speaking about obtaining something, moving something, or to become.

Ugh... Grammar sucks. I mean really, who in their right mind decided that a "participle" is:

A word formed from a verb and used as an adjective

So not only do you need to know what a verb is, but what an adjective is as well. :/

Seriously ... can they make things even more difficult for us mere mortals?

*grumble*

-J

Verb - Action word, walking, running, sitting, standing, or just sit, stand, run, walk. Adjective - Describing word e.g. grey, friendly, hostile.

I can't remember half of the grammar stuff anyway, just the main bits, long as I know where to put the full-stops, commas, and speech-marks I get by. It's the tense-shifts in the use of words I find challenging like got, gotten, get, getting, when you get one word that can be used to mean stuff you did before, are doing now, and will do in the future. I think it mainly depends on the structure and intention of the sentences you construct really for which tense version of the word you might use. Conventionally our English teachers want us to remember everything that they tell us, in reality unless you have a brain the size of a dictionary, you'll probably remember the important bits and put post-its on the rest, or just cheat and google it.

Googling is fun but only when you don't get forty million explanations for the same thing ;__;.

~ Pyre

While I regret my lack of knowledge about grammar, I'm still very grateful for the atypical English instruction I did receive. My English teacher in HS was more interested in getting his students to read and write than explaining the rules of grammar. First part of class, he would select a portion of this long list of commonly mispronounced, long, and obscure words and the class would have to chant it. We'd have quizzes on his vocabulary list, and reading assignments that allowed us to choose things that would actually interest us, individually, from his list of excellent literature. We'd have to write reports, and read them out loud. And keep journals, all of which he would meticulously grade, including detailed comments. Going to a very, very small school had advantages, one teacher per eight students is hardly the norm these days. Too bad!

Wow, knifethrower, I sure wish my kids would have had that kind of opportunity in High School... it might have turned out a lot better for them! I either learned what interested me, or didn't learn what didn't catch my eye, regardless of class size. I can still remember sitting in some classes with my fiction book hidden behind my text book, LOL!

Some things I wish I'd paid more attention to, others I learned far more about AFTER leaving school than while I was there, y'know?

~~Wiccan~~
PS - Don't EVER worry about asking questions here... you know we're always happy to help!!

I did that in class, as well. Hid Isac Asimov inside my Algebra book. Good times! Test scores said I was supposed to be brilliant in math, and my math teacher loved to embarrass me in front of the class because I didn't live up to my potential. I grew up and got hired by my math teacher's cousin, so of course he told her I was the laziest student he had ever taught. At least she's not too surprised when I spend all day reading and writing fanfiction, instead of working. See, I really did live up to my potential after all!

LOL!!!

Your story reminds me so much of me! I have ADD and have had it since childhood (back in the days when we didn't know what ADD even was)... the bane of my existence was teachers always telling my parents that I was a smart girl, but I "could do so much better." A really hot guy in high school told me I'd be a nice girl if I "didn't talk so much." Or, "not living up to potential," as was said about you.

S'okay, though. I put my talent for talking and writing to use working on a number of grassroots projects in my community. We stopped a poorly planned, unmonitored youth camp for juvenile offenders from Detroit from going into our rural neighborhood, we stopped a landfill from being built near an already contaminated site, and, after 12 years, we got the local residents to vote to build new schools (by 24 votes!).

So, I put my talent for reading and writing into reading laws and writing letters to lawmakers, newspapers, and television stations. I put my talent for gabbing into persuasive speaking at town hall meetings, senate hearings & county commission meetings. And I'm betting that you've found a way to put your own unique talents to work, even aside from reading and writing fanfiction.

You're an articulate, bright author whose posts here on the forum are always appreciated... and I, for one, am darn glad you're part of fanfiction!

~~Wiccan~~