Gotten

**ust2b** · 25th January 2020, 10:46

Gotten. This word drives me crazy. Stupid American bastardisation of our written word.

Example "And that's before we have even gotten into the fact that she was in a new country with no family and without her longtime, trusted circle of friends."

gotten into the fact!!!??? The Editor should be fired.

**jasonu** · 25th January 2020, 11:10

Originally Posted by ust2b

Gotten. This word drives me crazy. Stupid American bastardisation of our written word.

Example "And that's before we have even gotten into the fact that she was in a new country with no family and without her longtime, trusted circle of friends."

gotten into the fact!!!??? The Editor should be fired.

Take a pill princess.

**Bonez** · 25th January 2020, 11:26

It's just a shortened version of Got´ten- to get. Nothing to do with the yanks at all.

Nothing to see here folks. Move along please.

**BadSarah** · 25th January 2020, 17:48

Originally Posted by ust2b

Gotten. This word drives me crazy. Stupid American bastardisation of our written word.

Example "And that's before we have even gotten into the fact that she was in a new country with no family and without her longtime, trusted circle of friends."

gotten into the fact!!!??? The Editor should be fired.

Drives me batshit too. Often it appears to be a lack of a decent vocabulary. One american written book I had become (gotten) annoyed with after they used it half a dozen times before I had got (gotten) to the bottom of th page. There's so many wonderful words in the english language: purchased/ acquired/ obtained an item, contracted a disease from, became inured to... or just plain got, the past tense of get. The list goes on, this is just lifted (gotten) from the top of my head.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

**GazzaH** · 25th January 2020, 18:35

Language is constantly evolving. If you get yer knockers in a twist wiv every lil change, youl pop an artery afore your timezup, guv.

Some of the present-day differences between 'British English' and 'American English' go way back to spellings/pronunciations that were common when the Brits first discovered the continent (OK, invaded!). Back then, fewer people were literate, hence some of the written differences. Others have crept in since and are still creeping in.

Same thing with 'Kiwi English', bro, and 'Aussie English', cobber. There are pronunciations and 'turns of phrase' that are uniquely NZ and Oz, just as there are uniquely British ones. Even within the countries, there are regional differences - not just 'accents' but different ways of expressing things using particular words and terms that are uncommon or unknown ("unknowen") elsewhere.

Same again with txt-spk, emoticons

, jargon, pro' terms, abbrev's, acronyms and more. Within social groups, language is simply a means of communicating. So long as the meaning is sufficiently clear to the people directly involved, the opinions of third parties are largely irrelevant ... unless the content concerns them.

Despite the extreme care in drafting and approving laws and regulations, ambiguous language is a massive problem for the legal profession - well, a massive opportunity for those intent on exploiting the uncertainties to argue one way or the other (at the client's expense, naturally).

As if that's not enough already, our writing varies too. Can you even guess the meaning of those beautiful medieval illustrated manufcriptf, written with extreme care by experts of the day? Even on the Web, some of us prefer serif or nonserif fonts, different sizes, colours (or colors) and more.

Embrace the diversity! Language is a fascinating tool!

**F5 Dave** · 25th January 2020, 19:21

So nice to see your face again
Tell me how long has it been
Since you've been here
(since you've been here)
You look so different than before
But still the person I adore
Frozen with fear
I'm out of love but I'll take it from the past
I'll let out words cause I'm sure It'll never last

And I've been saving
These last words for one last miracle
But now I'm not sure
I can't save you if
You don't let me
You just get me like I never
Been gotten before

**F5 Dave** · 25th January 2020, 19:22

Maybe it's the bitter wind
A chill from the Pacific rim
That brought you this way
(that brought you my way)
Do not make me think of him
The way he touch your fragile skin
That hunts me everyday
I'm out of love but I can't forget the past
I'm out of words but I'm sure it'll never last

And I've been saving
These last words for one last miracle

**F5 Dave** · 25th January 2020, 19:24

But now I'm not sure
I can't save you if
You don't let me
You just get me like I never
Been gotten before

**FJRider** · 25th January 2020, 19:24

Originally Posted by ust2b

Gotten. This word drives me crazy. Stupid American bastardisation of our written word.

Example "And that's before we have even gotten into the fact that she was in a new country with no family and without her longtime, trusted circle of friends."

gotten into the fact!!!??? The Editor should be fired.

The past tense form of get is got. The past participle of got is gotten. A past participle is a word that's used with had, have or has. Therefore, it's perfectly acceptable to use gotten if it's being used with its companion word. ... That said, I still don't like the word. But still use it. (But I haven't gotten around to NOT using it)

It's in the dictionary ... so you can use it in Scrabble. Therefore it is a real word.

**pritch** · 25th January 2020, 20:36

Language changes over time it's true. Almost every day now I see posts, usually US in origin where the letter 'd' is missed off the end of a word. What is that about? Perhaps we should resist change that's too sudden.

A few years ago some NZ teachers wanted to make US spelling acceptable in our schools because that was the language computers used. These luddites were blissfully unaware that the language is just a setting and that it's easily changed.

**Big Dog** · 26th January 2020, 08:30

Originally Posted by pritch

Language changes over time it's true. Almost every day now I see posts, usually US in origin where the letter 'd' is missed off the end of a word. What is that about? Perhaps we should resist change that's too sudden.

A few years ago some NZ teachers wanted to make US spelling acceptable in our schools because that was the language computers used. These luddites were blissfully unaware that the language is just a setting and that it's easily changed.

Maybe they are expressing their chagrin about not having gotten the D for a while?

Be fair, NZ English has only been in most apps for a couple of years.
It's still not a native option in many applications.

Worse the grammar checkers are hopeless.

Rely on spelling and grammar check? Yeah nah.