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The idioms has got and have
got seem to be present
perfect tense:
they use has and have
and these forms
are followed by a past participle (one
of the two past
participles of get--got and gotten). These
two related
idioms are not
present perfect, however. Instead, they're
actually simple present tense and are
conversational
equivalents of has
and have:
He's got
red hair. = He has red hair.
Have you got
a dollar? = Do you have
a dollar?
They've got
two children. = They have two children.
You've got
mail! = You have mail!
I haven't got
time. = I don't
have time.
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Has got and have
got are also
used to make a variation
of has to
/ have to: has got to
and have got to. These
variations
are almost always contracted:
He's got to
leave early. = He has
to leave early.
We've got to
go. = We have
to go.
They've got to
hurry. = They have
to hurry.
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Got to is usually pronounced something like "gotta,"
but this is a spoken form
and is not acceptable in
most writing:
| Written Form |
|
Spoken Form |
|
He's got to
leave early.
We've got to
go.
They've got to
hurry.
|
|
*He's gotta leave early.
*We've gotta
go.
*They've gotta hurry.
|
Also, 've (the contraction of have)
in I / you / we / they
have got to is
often omitted--so it sounds something
like this:
| Written Form |
|
Spoken Form |
|
I've got to
hurry!
You've got to
help me!
We've got to
try harder!
They've got to
tell us!
|
|
*I
gotta hurry.
*You gotta help me!.
*We gotta try harder
*They gotta tell us!
|
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Special
Notes
| 1. |
|
The verb get has two past participles--got
and
gotten. In American English, got
is used to make
the expressions has / have
got and has / have
got to; gotten is used to make present perfect:
He's got
a new car. ( = present )
He's gotten
a new car. ( = present perfect)
I've got
a headache right now.
( = present )
I've gotten
a headache four times this week.
( = present perfect)
They've got
permission to leave early.
( = present )
They've gotten
permission to leave early.
( = present perfect
)
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| 2. |
|
Because has / have
got and has / have got
to
are
not present perfect, they cannot be used with
present
perfect time expressions:
not this:
He's got a new car every two years.
but this:
He's gotten a new car every two years.
not this:
She's got the flu since last Thursday.
but this:
She's had the flu since last Thursday.
not this:
We've got to work late three times
last week.
but this:
We had to work late three times last
week.
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| 3. |
|
The
expressions has / have got
and has / have
got to are informal. They shouldn't be used in
formal writing and they should also be avoided
in formal speaking. For formal situations, use
has
/ have and must. |
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| 4. |
|
In casual speech, 've is often omitted in
've
got to ("gotta"), but 's
is not omitted in
's got to ("'s gotta"):
commonly heard:
I
/ you / we / they gotta leave right away.
strange:
???
He / she gotta
leave right away.
Remember that "gotta"
is a spoken form
and is used in only the most casual
writing
(for example, comics and informal
letters
to close friends).
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| 5. |
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The expressions has / have
got to (has /
have to)
and get to (be
allowed to / be permitted to) are
not the same:
I've got to go. = I have to
/ must go.
I got to go. = I was permitted
to go.
She's got to stay up late.
= She has to / must
stay up late.
She gets to stay up late.
= She's allowed to /
permitted to stay up late.
The expression get to is not contracted to *gotta.
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