"have got" ?

[Catherine C.]

One of my students wants to know why "got" in the following sentence isn't "gotten":

I've got some time so I can stay for awhile.

Tia...
Catherine C.

[orme]

I would say because 'gotten' is a past participle and your sentence is in the present 'I have got' :- right now, I've got time.

Gotten is used in US English, but not in UK English. I understand that in the US one doesn't usually use 'have got', eg. 'I have got a brother', but rather would say 'I have a brother'. Using 'have got' is more common in the UK.

[dihen]

I wonder why "have got" doesn't usually mean "did get ?"

[orme]

'I have got a blue car' is in the present tense. Used in this sense, 'have got' is an indication of possession, and you can also say 'I have a blue car'. It is strange that we use have as an auxilliary then got in this way, especially when we use 'have' + past participle to form the present perfect. Perhaps it's because whatever it is we have, it has been got!

[Catherine C.]

In my sample sentence, present tense is used. I'm no expert but "did get" would change the tense to the past and wouldn't make sense or sound natural in this particular example.

Catherine C.

[orme]

No 'I did get some time' isn't good English. 'Did get' would put the phrase into the past as you say but even if it were in the past you would have to say 'I did have (or I had) some time ..... In fact, I don't think we actually use 'did get' very often. The auxilliary 'do' is usually used for negative statements or questions: 'do you get something,' or 'did you get something'; 'you don't get something' or 'you didn't get something'. The only time I can think of when it might be used otherwise is when trying to emphasise a point, eg: 'You didn't get the right book' 'I did get the right book'.

[Catherine C.]

Thank-you!

ANYONE ELSE?

Tia...
Catherine C.

[dihen]

Do the British ever use "gotten", as in "have gotten" meaning "have received"?

[Tdol]

Not really- we used to use it but now it only survives in a few phrases like ill-gotten gains.

[orme]

As tdol says, it's no longer used in the UK (just like the Québécois have French terms which are no longer used in France, American English has terms which are no longer used in the UK).