Excerpt From A Student's Essay.

[Tilly2]

'In this year's exam fiasco, many pupils were awarded a D grade when they should have gotten a C.'

Can you imagine the conversation we had about this?

[DaisyNonna]

gotten?

[shoota]

Gotten is rotten.

[Prudie]

I must admit I say gotten sometimes but I think it's obsolete rather than erroneous

[losgigs]

Obviously watches too much US tv programmes.

[Hopkirk]

At least he didn't say "should of"

[seadogg]

Does it come from German or another immigrant language in the U.S.?

[Tilly2]

How did you know it was a male student, Hopkirk?

[bednobs]

what's up with gotten?

[Prudie]

No it's from get like get, got, gotten and forget, forgot and forgotten

[seadogg]

Interesting point Prudie. You can imagine it cropping up in the Canterbury Tales.

[Hopkirk]

Oh, I don't know. It's bound to be a boy though.

[DaisyNonna]

Americanism.

[factor-fiction]

I understand 'gotten' was used in Britain around the time of Shakespeare. Shakespeare certainly used 'misbegotten'. The term ill-gotten gains is still used.

[Tilly2]

Would you accept 'gotten' as correct in this sentence factor, considering we do not live in Elizabethan England?

[DaisyNonna]

No, I would not.

[Psybbo]

It's a moot point, Tilly

[factor-fiction]

I was just imagining some of the points that may have been made during the conversation with the students. I would tell students not to use 'gotten' because the examiners wouldn't like it and it's not generally accepted. But this highlights one of the issues I would have with teaching English: the language evolves- some words disappear (e.g. mountebank), some reappear, and many new words become accepted every year (e.g. the word numeracy was created only 40-50 years ago).

[woofgang]

I still use mountebank to mean a show off idiot.

[factor-fiction]

I meant to add that I would also discourage them from using the word 'got'. It's one of those words (such as 'nice', 'fantastic'. 'okay' and 'won't') that we use frequently in conversations but are (or certainly were) frowned upon by English examiners.

[vascop]

I agree with daisy it's an americanism. Perfectly OK over there.