Things Americans tend to say that sound weird to you

Trimac20   Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:09 am GMT
Not so much weird, but different...

Saying like, 'I'M born in Montana' - while I would say 'I WAS born in Montana.' The 'I'm' instead of the 'Was.'

Saying, 'a quarter mile' or 'a half hour ago'. I would say 'a quarter OF a mile, or half AN hour ago.'

The word 'gotten' sounds like bad English to me.
Jasper   Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:17 am GMT
Trimac, I have read that the use of the word "gotten" was derived from Old English. While the Brits dropped it, for some reason, the Americans didn't.
Prolunar   Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:21 am GMT
Gotten is coming more into fashion in Britain due to American influence.
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:19 am GMT
Really, Prolunar? It's not something I've noticed at all. Are you in the UK yourself? London? If so could it be a London thing then but quite honestly I don't think that British people are all that influenced by American English to any earth shattering degree.

I speak to a great many people but I really can't recall any instance when I heard a Brit use "gotten". It was indeed part of everyday spoken English up until Stuart times and maybe a wee bit beyond, but when all that tea was dumped into Boston harbour we did likewise with "gotten" - we chucked it into the deep end of Loch Ness to keep the monster company....just by Castle Urquhart, his favourite surfacing spot.
Prolunar   Fri Feb 27, 2009 12:24 pm GMT
Yeas, I am in UK, though I was talking mainly about writing, where I've noticed the usage has crept in every so often.
Poliglob   Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:46 pm GMT
Trimac20, I'm an American, but 'I'm born in Montana' sounds weird to me too (the rest I'm familiar with and use myself).

It reminds me of German, which I believe could use the present tense of 'to be' in that context -- (ich bin in Montana geboren).
Poliglob   Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:08 pm GMT
Here are some got/gotten search results -- for what they're worth, which may not be much because Americans also use 'got'. It depends on the meaning. They wouldn't say, for instance, 'I have gotten to be there on time', with the meaning of being obliged to be there. They'd say, 'I have got to be there on time' or 'I've got to be there on time'.

Yahoo net search results:

"have gotten" 97,500,000
"have got" 107,000,000

Yahoo UK only search results:

"have gotten" 865,000
"have got" 16,300,000
Poliglob   Fri Feb 27, 2009 2:10 pm GMT
To show how the meaning affects which form is used:

Yahoo net search results:

"have gotten to be there" 71
"have got to be there" 23,600

Yahoo UK only search results:

"have gotten to be there" 0
"have got to be there" 922
RayH   Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:08 pm GMT
>Saying like, 'I'M born in Montana' - while I would say 'I WAS born in Montana.' The 'I'm' instead of the 'Was.'

As a native speaker I find the "I'm born" and similar formulations odd sounding as well.
Leasnam   Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:21 pm GMT
<<Saying like, 'I'M born in Montana' - while I would say 'I WAS born in Montana.' The 'I'm' instead of the 'Was.'
Saying, 'a quarter mile' or 'a half hour ago'. I would say 'a quarter OF a mile, or half AN hour ago.'
The word 'gotten' sounds like bad English to me. >>

I am American, and I say "I was born in..."; as well as "a quarter of a mile" and "half an hour ago"

Those other examples I have never heard before anywhere in America, and they seem very odd to me as well.

And we only use "gotten" in the sense of "received"/"obtained"--not in all instances like "I have got to get out of here" or "I have got a bad case of influenza"

Americans use both "got" & "gotten"
Rick   Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:25 pm GMT
<<Americans use both "got" & "gotten">>

Yeah, we use both. And "got" and gotten" can contrast:

I've got a computer.

I've gotten a computer.

Both mean different things to an american.
Rick   Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:25 pm GMT
<<As others have pointed out, "gotten" fell out of use in Britain but is retained in the U.S. Similarly, as Rick pointed out both "got" and "gotten" are used in the U.S. and mean different things.

"I got sick after eating tainted food." --> (I became ill after eating tainted food.)

"I've gotten those kinds of things in the mail before." --> (I have received those kinds of things in the mail before.)

"If I hadn't gotten sick, I would have been able to attend the play." --> (If I hadn't fallen ill, I would have been able to attend the play.)>>

Yeah, and likewise, "have got" and "have gotten" contrast for Americans:

"I've got a computer" (I have a computer right now)

"I've gotten a computer" (I just recently received a computer)
WRP   Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:45 pm GMT
"I'm born in ..." sounds like a genuine mistake to me, like someone tried to "I'm from" and "I was born in" and the sentence came out a bit mangled. Looking at google it seems most people who use it are non native speakers, but that there are native speakers in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada who have at least written it on the internets.

On the other hand...

a quarter mile / a quarter of a mile
a half hour / half an hour

These all seem equally unobjectionable to me.
AJC   Sat Feb 28, 2009 7:17 pm GMT
Here's a British person using "gotten"

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/text-only/england/welwick/

Note that the speaker is neither old enough to remember the 17th century nor very likely influenced by American speech. It might be claimed that the usage "seem to hark back to English of an earlier period" but the reason it so "seems" is the current belief in "got" as a sort of shibboleth of "British English".
Liz   Sat Feb 28, 2009 8:16 pm GMT
There are some, especially older, speakers in the north who use "gotten" or "getten". Hence the Lancashire saying used in connection with ungratefulness: "bread etten soon forgetten".