Thread: Which sentence is correct?

The 3rd form of get is got in British English (not 'gotten'), and gotten in American English. It is absolutely necessary, in my opinion, to teach both, and I always do.
(e.g.: see Murphy "English Grammar in Use")
As to umania's original assertion, I'm afraid that's just ridiculous.

If you said "Has John got a motorcycle?," I would look at you funny. It is not in common usage, at least not where I live.

OK well my use of the word 'ridiculous' was a bit strong. Anyway, where I come from, 'Has John got..' is normal usage, to the extent that 'Does John have' sounds slightly formal (although, of course, never wrong).
There is at least one really interesting question here, I didn't mean to be dismissive..

Originally Posted by umania

If you said "Has John got a motorcycle?," I would look at you funny. It is not in common usage, at least not where I live.

Of course it is in common usage. Christ. Perhaps there should be some kind of test to determine participants' fitness to dispense information in this section of the forum? The average native speaker evidently knows sod all about the English language and, worse, seems intent on disseminating his stupidity. Dispiriting, that.

If you read more carefully, you would have seen me say, "at least where I live." Maybe in "Moscou" (your location) the English speakers do use it often. I think I would know what is and is not used in the language I speak and hear every day.

Wow, zing! He sure told you, joysof.

Umania, "has got" is accepted normal usage in Britain, to the point that "has gotten," the original past participle, is considered archaic and even sounds incorrect, I believe. In any case, it is not considered a dire grammatical error in the UK. Perhaps someone who is actually British can back me up or correct me on this one.

Just because it is not common usage in your area does not make it wrong. Amazingly, English is spoken in many places other than your location!

Oh dear.

joysof - come on, that's both silly and elitist, and also offensive. I made the mistake of using language like 'ridiculous', but I retracted it. It won't help any of the people who read this if we just start insulting each other.

umania, I understand why you felt the need to respond like that, but it wasn't such a great idea.

Let's not have another one of those fruitless p***ing contests about our use of English..

As far as I recall, joysof is from England and is bilingual English/French. I'm from London.

My suggestion: umania, let us know where you're from, and then let's just leave it at that. It would probably help if a few others, stating their locations (or at least where they learnt English), offered their opinion.

According to my grammar reference ("English Grammar in Use", R. Murphy, probably the most popular simple reference for teachers of English as a foreign language), the form 'I have got' = 'I have' is correct and normal in both American and British English. Of course it is somewhat informal, but not hugely (not slang). I won't bother to look it up somewhere else, that's going too far.

Oh and the other thing :
'Has he got' could mean 'does he have' or 'did he get'

so if I'm right we have 2 possibilities:
1 'Has he got' = 'Does he have' -> this would be OK in Am and Br. I use this a million times a day, personally. 'Has he got your phone number?'

2 'Has he got' = 'Did he get' (i.e. present perfect/past simple) - this case is much more confusing, because present perfect of 'get' is very similar in meaning to present simple of 'have'.

Americans would say it should be 'Has he gotten', I suppose (?) .. but it seems to me, on reflection, that we generally avoid that construction where I come from, and use the past simple 'Did he get'. I thought about this for some time, and I couldn't find any really natural examples of 'Has he got' with meaning 2 above..

ho hum

*removes double post*

British English very rarely uses "gotten." I agree with waxwing on usage there, although I do not claim to speak for Americans, either. In British English "gotten" is only used by those picking it up from Americans, perhaps without realising. "Got" is certainly not considered incorrect, as Lindzi rightly guesses.

*edits out typos*

I am from Phoenix, Arizona.

So, how would you ask a person :"have you got time to listen all this cr@p" or "do you have time to listen all this cr@p"? I remember how I helped a girl to start learning English and used the general "do you [verb]" construction, cause I was lazy at the time and didn't want to complicate things and explain her all these "have got" nuances. Another guy got angry over me and said "Why do you tell her this? This is americanism!" For some reasons he considered "American English" a deteriorated and improper form of British English, so according to him, "do you have" is an oversimplification of perhaps more idiomatic, but more conventional "have you got". What do you think of this?

No, it's normal usage. It sounds nicer. I'd tilt either way:

"Do you have a pen and some paper?"

"Have you got a pen and some paper?"

these both sound quite natural to me, though you wouldn't normally say "some" - the phrase "a pen and paper" sounds stupid to me though.

Originally Posted by waxwing

joysof - come on, that's both silly and elitist, and also offensive. I made the mistake of using language like 'ridiculous', but I retracted it. It won't help any of the people who read this if we just start insulting each other.

'Elitist' is fine by me. No retraction here.

Originally Posted by Линдзи

Wow, zing! He sure told you, joysof.

Mmm. Lot of it about this week.

Originally Posted by Propp

Another guy got angry over me and said "Why do you tell her this? This is americanism!" For some reasons he considered "American English" a deteriorated and improper form of British English, so according to him, "do you have" is an oversimplification of perhaps more idiomatic, but more conventional "have you got". What do you think of this?

Do you still know this guy? I would like to befriend him.

Originally Posted by joysof

Originally Posted by Propp

Another guy got angry over me and said "Why do you tell her this? This is americanism!" For some reasons he considered "American English" a deteriorated and improper form of British English, so according to him, "do you have" is an oversimplification of perhaps more idiomatic, but more conventional "have you got". What do you think of this?

Do you still know this guy? I would like to befriend him.

I still know him. I'm afraid he doesn't remember this very episode but he's got a lot of another nice features. But you should befriend me first. Since we're both in Moscow (at least if what is written under your name is correct) it is not very hard to do.

Originally Posted by joysof

Originally Posted by Propp

Another guy got angry over me and said "Why do you tell her this? This is americanism!" For some reasons he considered "American English" a deteriorated and improper form of British English, so according to him, "do you have" is an oversimplification of perhaps more idiomatic, but more conventional "have you got". What do you think of this?

Do you still know this guy? I would like to befriend him.

I still know him. I'm afraid he doesn't remember this very episode but he's got a lot of another nice features. But you should befriend me first. Since we're both in Moscow (at least if what is written under your name is correct) it is not very hard to do.