got

I bought some chocolate reindeers ( sic) from John Lewis. Wrote to the Cambridge Confectionary Company to point out the error and received some free choccies.

Gotta love that, looploo!

Witzend

Shelflife

I remember in primary school the teacher saying " we never use the word 'got' its an ugly word. We also learned that when writing to never begin a sentence with the word ' And' .

IIRC a lot of sentences in the King James Bible begin with ‘and’.

I forget his exact words, but Winston Churchill evidently didn’t hold with the ‘no prepositions at the end of a sentence’ rule.

“This is the sort of thing up with which I will not put.” 😂

Churchill clearly didn’t understand the concept of the non-separable phrasal verb.

DaisyAnneReturns

Apparently, when we think Americans have got it wrong they are often closer to old Engish than we are - which is really annoying!

I hate gotten . I still try and remember all the English rules we were taught at primary and GS including not to use got .
I also hate the sound of words with the T missing. How do Scottish Grans think of Sco-land.
Another pet hate, I fink is "Fir-y free fousand pounds" I usually like regional accents Some of my GGC are bi-lingual in Northumberland and Sussex.
Can and May are two different words. It depends on the person when I answer that.
I am still amused by one of my pupils in a school 30 miles away from my home town who said "Don't you talk posh, Miss". which was a statement not a question.
I and my friend , a retired English teacher, have had some amusing discussions about English language.

I do love Pedants' corner, and can never resist adding to it. My current annoyances are "sat" instead of "sitting". (What has happened to the present participle?). Also the split infinitive e.g. "I told him to not run", "She decided to not do it".

springishere

I do love Pedants' corner, and can never resist adding to it. My current annoyances are "sat" instead of "sitting". (What has happened to the present participle?). Also the split infinitive e.g. "I told him to not run", "She decided to not do it".

I totally agree with you about ‘sat’; I also fume about people saying ‘lay’ instead of ‘lie’.

Are some of these 'issues' simply regional variations?
I think the split infinite began to lose out with Star Trek and 'to boldly go'.

I’m pretty sure that I was taught at primary school that ‘ had gotten’ was more grammatical than ‘ had got ‘.

My mother always said ‘I think not’, rather then ‘I don’t think so’.

Maybe it was a Scottish thing, or even more local.

Shelflife

I remember in primary school the teacher saying " we never use the word 'got' its an ugly word. We also learned that when writing to never begin a sentence with the word ' And' .

I've never forgotten when my primary school teacher was handing back our composition books, and when he got to my desk he threw the book at me, roaring: "We_never_start_a_sentence_with_'and' - EVER!"
And I never did again! (oops)

JamesandJon33

My mother always said ‘I think not’, rather then ‘I don’t think so’.

Mine often said that too. When she said it, it was more emphatic than "I don't think so".

That said, the tone of voice was different, so maybe it was the delivery rather than the word order that made the difference.

I love Pointless but Alexander Armstrong says ‘got’ all the time. “Let’s see what we have got on the board”. Arrgh!

‘Get’ can be useful though, as in ‘get stuffed’, ‘get lost’, etc.

loopyloo

I bought some chocolate reindeers ( sic) from John Lewis. Wrote to the Cambridge Confectionary Company to point out the error and received some free choccies.

Perhaps they were intended for Valentines Day?

DaisyAnneReturns

Shelflife

I remember in primary school the teacher saying " we never use the word 'got' its an ugly word. We also learned that when writing to never begin a sentence with the word ' And' .

You are right that Primary School teachers did tell children not to start sentences with, as I remember it, "and, but or because" but this is not a rule if grammar but a rule if thumb, generally to stop overuse of these words. The "adult" rules are:

You may begin a sentence with and or but when it improves clarity or emphasis.

You may begin a sentence with because as long as the sentence includes an independent clause.

In formal writing, do all three deliberately and sparingly.

👏 👏👏

grannybuy

I’m pretty sure that I was taught at primary school that ‘ had gotten’ was more grammatical than ‘ had got ‘.

In another thread, I’ve just typed ‘forgotten’, and feel that’s acceptable.
It did remind me of ‘from the get go’, which seems to have appeared relatively recently.

My Primary School teachers hated the word got. We were told it was any ugly word and only fit for Germans to use. 5 years of Occupation may have had a bearing on their opinion.

Witzend

‘Get’ can be useful though, as in ‘get stuffed’, ‘get lost’, etc.

😂

Then why not "got lost" or "got stuffed"? 🤔

I was told to use " nice " only in reference to food and " due to " only in reference to money.

The English language is a minefield. It's a wonder it's so popular as a second language.

What's wrong with saying "have a nice day!" or "due to unforeseen circumstances ..."?

It's hardly surprising there is so much bad spelling and poor grammar, even when English is the first language, because there are so many inconsistencies 🫤.

My four year old granddaughter is learning phonics, it's pretty simple for most three letter words, but then it's more challenging. She is constantly questioning why certain words are pronounced as they are, when they are spelt differently eg. walk/pork, play/grey, deep/leap, moan/tone. It is very difficult to hold her interest 🥱.

There are lots of other things to hold her interest at 4. TheSunRisesInTheEast.

Yes, going to the park, riding her bike, watching Peppa Pig, singing and dancing to Sing 2, but she's almost 5 years old, I'd love her to take an interest in reading and writing, but it isn't happening 🤷.