Got vs Gotten: American, British and Australian Usage

The difference between got and gotten is regional. In American English, gotten is the usual past participle of get when it means obtain, become or move (She has gotten a promotion), while got is used for possession and obligation (I've got a car, I've got to go). In British and Australian English, got does nearly all the work and gotten sounds American.

Both forms share the same simple past, got. The split only appears after have, has or had, which is exactly where learners and international teams run into trouble.

Quick answer: Simple past is always got (I got a ticket). After have/has/had: Americans write gotten for obtaining, becoming and moving, and got for possessing or "must." Britons and Australians write got for everything, except in the fixed phrase ill-gotten gains.

On this page

1. The forms of "get"
2. Where gotten came from
3. How Americans choose between got and gotten
4. US vs UK vs Australia
5. Example sentences
6. Questions, negatives and the "get" passive
7. Common mistakes
8. Writing for an international audience
9. Casual "I got" and "I've got": what's happening
10. A short conversion exercise
11. A memory trick
12. Practice quiz
13. The bottom line for your writing

The forms of "get"

Pronunciation: got is GOT (in American speech the vowel is closer to GAHT); gotten is GOT-n, with the second syllable often reduced to a soft glottal or nasal sound in American speech, roughly GAHT-n.

Where gotten came from

Get entered English from Old Norse, and in Middle and Early Modern English it took the participle gotten, parallel to other strong verbs such as forget/forgotten and beget/begotten. Shakespeare's contemporaries used gotten, and the King James Bible has it too.

From around the eighteenth century, British usage shifted toward got as the participle, and gotten fell out of standard British use. American English, which had inherited the older pattern from colonists, kept gotten. This is one of several cases, alongside fall for autumn, where the American form preserves what was once common across English. So when a British reader calls gotten "an Americanism," they are right about where it is used today but not about where it started.

Traces remain in Britain: ill-gotten gains, the biblical begotten, and forgotten, which never lost its -en. Some Scottish and northern English dialects also kept gotten in speech.

How Americans choose between got and gotten

This is the part that confuses everyone, including some Americans who have never thought about it. American English keeps both participles and gives them different jobs.

Use "have gotten" for change, acquisition and movement

When get means obtain, receive, become or move, the American present perfect is have gotten:

• She's gotten three job offers. (received)
• The traffic has gotten worse. (become)
• We've finally gotten through the backlog. (moved through)
• Have you gotten the email yet? (received)

Use "have got" for possession and obligation

When have got means simply have or must, Americans use got, just like the British:

• I've got two brothers. (possess)
• You've got a meeting at three. (have)
• We've got to finish by Friday. (must)

Notice that I've got in this sense is present in meaning, not past. That is the key. "I've got a car" means I own one now; "I've gotten a car" means I acquired one, with the focus on the obtaining.

A minimal pair

British English cannot draw the last distinction with got alone; a British speaker would say You've had the chance to see this or You've managed to see this.

"Got" as the American participle anyway

Usage is not perfectly tidy. Some Americans do say I've got used to it or He's got a lot taller in casual speech. But in edited American writing, gotten is the expected form in the change-and-acquisition senses, and have gotten is standard in American dictionaries and style guides.

US vs UK vs Australia

United States

Gotten is standard and very common in speech and writing. Have got survives for possession and obligation, and informal gotta ("I gotta go") comes from that obligation sense. Formal American writing may still prefer a more specific verb than get in either form, but that is general advice about the verb, not about the participle.

United Kingdom

Got is the standard participle in all senses: It's got colder, She's got a promotion, Have you got the email yet? Context tells listeners whether got means possession or acquisition. Gotten appears in ill-gotten gains and in some regional speech. American gotten is understood, and some younger speakers use it, but in formal British writing it is usually edited to got.

British English also uses have got very heavily for possession in speech (I've got a cold) where American English often uses simple have (I have a cold). Both are understood in both countries.

Australia

Australian English follows the British pattern: got is the standard participle, and schools, editors and government style generally expect it. Gotten is increasingly heard in Australian speech, a trend commonly put down to American film, television and online media, and some Australians dislike it for that reason. In formal Australian writing, use got.

Example sentences

Everyday conversation

1. (US) Wow, your daughter has gotten so tall since last summer.
2. (UK) Your daughter's got so tall since last summer.
3. (AU) The weather's got really humid in Darwin this week.
4. (US) I've gotten into the habit of walking after dinner.
5. (UK) I've got into the habit of walking after dinner.
6. (all) I've got a spare umbrella if you need one.

Workplace and email

7. (US) Have you gotten a response from the client in Denver?
8. (UK) Have you got a response from the client in Birmingham?
9. (US) The team has gotten much faster at closing tickets.
10. (AU) Our Sydney office has got through the audit without any findings.
11. (all) We've got to submit the tender by 5 p.m. Thursday.
12. (US) I hadn't gotten around to updating the slides before the call.

News style

13. (US) Housing in Austin has gotten steadily less affordable over the past decade.
14. (UK) Waiting lists in the region have got longer, the report found.
15. (AU) Fuel prices in Adelaide have got higher for the third week running.
16. (US) Officials said the fire had gotten within a mile of the town.

Academic and formal

17. (US) Participants who had gotten less sleep performed worse on the recall task.
18. (UK) Students who had got feedback early improved more.
19. (all, better) Participants who had received feedback early improved more.

Fixed phrases

20. The tycoon was forced to return his ill-gotten gains.
21. (US) You've gotten yourself into quite a mess.
22. (UK) You've got yourself into quite a mess.
23. (US) She's gotten to know the neighbors well.
24. (UK) She's got to know the neighbours well.

Questions, negatives and the "get" passive

The participle choice carries into questions and negatives, where regional habits differ in other ways too.

Asking about possession

To ask whether someone owns something, all three varieties accept Have you got...? British and Australian speakers use it constantly: Have you got a pen? Americans more often say Do you have a pen?, though Have you got a pen? is perfectly natural in American speech as well. What Americans would not say for possession is Have you gotten a pen?, because that asks whether you have obtained one.

The negatives follow the same logic. British and Australian speakers say I haven't got time; Americans say I don't have time or, informally, I haven't got time. I haven't gotten time is not idiomatic anywhere.

Asking about receiving or becoming

For the "obtain" sense, the participle splits again:

• (US) Haven't you gotten your passport back yet?
• (UK/AU) Haven't you got your passport back yet?

The "get" passive

Get can form a passive that stresses something happening, often unexpectedly: He got fired, The window got broken. In the perfect tense, Americans use gotten here too: He's gotten fired twice. British and Australian speakers say He's got fired twice, although many would prefer He's been fired twice in careful writing. The get passive is informal in every variety, so in formal prose a be passive is usually the better choice.

Common mistakes

❌ (US) I've gotten two kids and a dog. ✅ (US) I've got two kids and a dog. Possession takes "got" even in American English.

❌ (US) You've gotten to be kidding me. ✅ (US) You've got to be kidding me. Obligation or disbelief uses "got."

❌ I gotten a ticket yesterday. ✅ I got a ticket yesterday. The simple past is always "got"; "gotten" needs have/has/had.

❌ (UK formal) The situation has gotten worse. ✅ (UK formal) The situation has got worse. / The situation has become worse.

❌ She has getted a new car. ✅ She has got a new car. (UK/AU) / She has gotten a new car. (US)

❌ They ill-got the money. ✅ They obtained the money dishonestly. / It was ill-gotten money.

Writing for an international audience

If your readers are spread across the US, UK and Australia, the simplest strategy is to replace get with something more precise. That removes the participle question completely and usually improves the sentence:

• has gotten / has got worse → has worsened
• have gotten / have got the files → have received the files
• had gotten / had got lost → had become lost
• has gotten / has got bigger → has grown

Pick one regional standard for the whole document and apply it consistently, the same way you would for spellings like color and colour or the learned vs learnt and spelled vs spelt pairs. For a full overview of these patterns, see our British vs American vs Australian spelling guide.

Casual "I got" and "I've got": what's happening

In relaxed American speech, the have in have got often disappears completely: I got two tickets for Saturday can mean "I have two tickets" or "I obtained two tickets." Phrases like I got this (meaning "I can handle it") and You got this (encouragement) work the same way. They're common in texts, sport and pop culture, and widely understood in Britain and Australia too, but they belong to informal speech. In writing, restore the full form (I've got two tickets) or use I have.

British and Australian speakers drop the have in casual speech as well (You got a minute?), though it's often heard as more American.

A short conversion exercise

Rewrite this American paragraph for a British or Australian publication. Try it before reading the answer.

(US) "Prices have gotten higher since spring, and many shoppers in our town have gotten used to buying in bulk. We've got a long way to go before things improve."

(UK/AU) "Prices have got higher since spring, and many shoppers in our town have got used to buying in bulk. We've got a long way to go before things improve."

Only the first two change. The third sentence is about possession in a figurative sense ("we have a long way to go"), so got was already correct in American English. For a version that suits all three audiences, you could write: Prices have risen since spring, and many shoppers have become used to buying in bulk.

A memory trick

"Gotten is for getting; got is for having." In American English, if you could swap in have or must with no change in meaning, use got. If the sentence is about the act of getting, becoming or moving, use gotten. And for British and Australian English: "Got? Got it." One form covers everything.

Practice quiz

Fill in got or gotten for the variety shown.

1. (US) The roads have ___ icy overnight.
2. (UK) The roads have ___ icy overnight.
3. (US) I've ___ a headache.
4. (AU) Have you ___ your results yet?
5. (US) She ___ the email an hour ago.
6. (any) He returned the ill-___ money.

Answers

1. gotten – American English uses gotten for "become."
2. got – British English uses got as the participle in all senses.
3. got – this is possession ("I have a headache").
4. got – Australian English follows the British pattern.
5. got – simple past, no have/has, so always got.
6. gotten – a fixed phrase in every variety.

The bottom line for your writing

Decide which variety you are writing in, and the choice almost makes itself. In American English, use gotten when something has been obtained, has changed or has moved, and keep got for having and needing to. In British and Australian English, use got throughout. When the audience is mixed, swap get for a sharper verb and the problem disappears.