Have/have got to express ownership: which is more common?
have
have got
0voters
To express the concept of ownership or possession, which form do you feel is more common where you’re from?
It would be great if you could post to say where you’re originally from, or which variety of English you speak e.g. British, American or any other kind.
Personally, I don’t particularly like “have got”. I think it’s inelegant. But that’s not what this poll is about. Feel free to talk about that kind of thing if you like, but I’d appreciate it if you could also let me know which option you think is more commonly used.
I have some M&M’s. Do you want some?
I have got some M&M’s. Do you want some?
I got some M&M’s. Want some?
Of course, that should be past tense for get, but I’ve heard it used for present tense enough to know it’s not too uncommon…
I chose “have” even though I have heard “have got” quite often. I just believe that “have” is accepted in more speech communities and is appropriate in more registers than “have got” or just plain “got”.
Hexuan, I intended the option for have got to include 've got, have you got, etc. In other words it was supposed to be LEMMATISED. (I hope I’m using that word correctly but it sounds good anyway.)
I think there is certainly a sense in which have is more acceptable in writing. Also, I wonder whether 've got is generally more common in “Brit Eng” speech than in “Am Eng” speech.
I feel that got on its own may qualify as dialect, so even further down the line from have got in terms of informality and unnacceptibility in formal contexts. What about the other way, though? Does anyone else feel the same as Hexuan that have is not particularly common in speech?
Ok, not everyone above divulged their origins. Cough it up!
Me: Illinois, with Floridian influence.
I agree with Joesax. “Have got” is inelegant and unnecessary. The present tense “got”, e.g., “I got” as in “I got two dogs at home” is uneducated. “Got” should be used in its original form, as the past tense of “get”, as in “Last year I got a raise”.
Although I occasionally use “I’ve got”, e.g., “I’ve got a cold”, I tend to prefer “I have”.
Chris, sorry, I didn’t think to put an option for “equally common”.
I forgot to put my own info: Dad’s from Scotland and Mum from England. I lived in a number of places in southern, south-western and northern England before coming here. While in England, I’m pretty sure I used have got more often in speech and have more often in writing. Now I tend to use have more often overall, partly perhaps due to exposure to American English.
Don’t like “got” much at all. Our English teacher used to harangue us with “I got up. I got out of bed. I got dressed. I got some breakfast. I got the bus. I got to school late. I got shouted at…” and so on if we used “got” in an essay.
I use as close an approximation as I can manage to the Queen’s English (when she’s not looking), but back home I become completely unintelligible to anyone not fluent in Norn Iron. My English is now utter and complete shite however after eleventy years in Taiwan.
East coast US. Most influence from southeastern states (Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama), but some from northern and western as well (Maine and Utah). I grew up in military housing, which could also factor in.
