What’s with this overuse of the word GOT? It’s becoming the bane of my existence. Every year, Americans use and abuse it more frequently, especially in TV shows and ads. And every year (more like every week) I ask myself, Why?
The English language offers loads of alternate verbs that do the job and get the point across much better, certainly with more finesse. Decades ago, why did an ad agency think “Got Milk?” was preferable to “Have Milk?” Both convey the same message, “Do you have any milk?” but one uses preferable grammar. When those ads popped up, I often wondered why the milk vendors found the word ‘got’ preferable to ‘have’. I found myself hoping this wasn’t going to start a trend, but those hopes have been dashed.
And then there’s all this redundancy. If a companion asks his friend how much money he has on him, the friend can answer, “I have forty dollars.” But no, in nearly every TV show or movie we’ll hear this: “I’ve got forty dollars.” Why do the script writers use two verbs (have and got) that mean nearly the same thing when one will do? I shake my head.
Likewise, people will insert ‘got’ to add a sense of urgency. For instance, they’ll say “I’ve got to go now” when “I have to go now” conveys the same message without the redundancy. If the speaker is compelled to add urgency to their pronouncement, how about using the verb that bespeaks urgency: need. ‘Need’ is a great word for conveying importance, as in “I need to go now.” If they want to show more urgency than that, they can emphasize the word ‘now’.
Another way ‘got’ is used for emphasis is in the common phrase, “You have got to be kidding me.” This use is so common I wonder if users realize it isn’t grammatically correct. It’s a fine example of how ‘have’ and ‘got’ and ‘have got’ are causing confusion among writers. If a fiction writer wants to have their character’s dialogue include phrases like “I’ve got,” they should realize they’re characterizing that person as someone who doesn’t much care about sounding grammatically correct. As an alternative to “You have got…”, the character could say, “You must be kidding me.”
You may wonder if I’m one of those aged linguists who detests the overuse of the word ‘got’. Yes, I am. Very long ago, my tenth grade English teacher told our class to never, ever, under any circumstances, use the word ‘got’ in our writing. When he explained that the word was ugly, banal, lazy, unwarranted, and just plain poor form, I believed him and followed his advice. Over the next 50 years of writing and publishing articles, manuals, books, and stories, I never ran across an instance where I needed to use the word. And these days, in my writing critiques, I often plead with authors to drop ‘got’ and replace it with a better verb. (Granted, ‘better’ is subjective, but to me, any verb is better than ‘got’.)
I’ll close with a comment I found on a writing website:
The word “got” is simply abysmal, small, nasty, unrewarding, distasteful, limited, ugly, wrong, grating and most unappealing. To be subjected to its use is the equivalent of listening to someone scrape their nails down a blackboard.
It’s good to know I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Have a happy Halloween!
This is great advice! Thank you for bringing to light something that has previously gone unnoticed. I am actually getting ready to comb through my current work in progress to see how many times I have used the word. I agree with you completely yet somehow I, too, have fallen into the trap of using it. I will now be more conscientious!
Hi Hilary,
Thank you for your response. I appreciate your comments.
Yes, I think many of us need to be more conscientious with our verbs.
🙂
I had a English teacher (in England, no less) forbid us from using the word, too. The example I remember him giving is “It grew dark.” So much nicer! Thanks for the reminder.
Hi Dani,
That’s good to hear. So your British English teacher and my Utah high school teacher were in league against that word. I like it!
Hi Ann,
I remember the “Got Milk” campaign. I suspect some ad man in a dingy corner rubbed his hands in glee. “It is grammatically incorrect so it will jangle the nerves of the well-read word snobs, and for those who don’t know any better it will sound correct to them. Win-win.”
I spend hours talking back to my TV correcting grammar.
My current passion is the difference between “among and between”. Tween should be your first cue that you’re dealing with two-tween, but alas. No.
When I taught high school, students would tell a story saying, “And then I went, ‘You’re not the boss of me, and then he went..’” Well you get the drift.
I would make an appeal though, to not abandon grammatical monsters universally. They can and should be used in dialogue if you want to create a linguistically accurate picture of how language is actually spoken.
“Aright? Aright.”
Hi Paulla,
So glad I’m not the only one who talks back to their TV. I caught myself doing that yesterday when a newscaster replaced ‘were’ with ‘was’ several times. Really? I smiled at your reference to the old phrase: “And then I went …” I heard that often during my undergrad years (the 70s) but haven’t heard it in a long time. So pleased it faded from popularity.