Past Tense and Present Perfect – Understanding ‘You’ve Gotten It Right!’

causative-getpast-tensepresent-perfect

To mean, "you are correct", we sometimes say:

  1. you got it right!

  2. you've got it right! (used in BrE, not sure about AE)

  3. you've gotten it right! (used in AE??)

Are they all correct? Are they simple past and present perfect forms of the verb "to get"?

I ask this because the verb "get" is sometimes very confusing, and on a number of occasions, its past form "got" is interchangeably used with the verb "have" or "have got", especially in AE, as in, "I got this" and "I've got this", both meaning "I can/will do it" (or I have =have got=got a car). As can be seen, in this usage, the verb "got" ceases to have any past meaning, and refers either to the present or future. My question is whether "got" in sentence (1) above has this non-past meaning, or it is simply the past tense form of "get", which means (1) is in past tense and (2) and (3) are in present perfect tense.

Best Answer

Yes these are the simple past and two forms of the present perfect. There are two forms because there are two possible past participles: "gotten" (Common in American English, less common in British) and "got" (British English uses this almost exclusively, American English uses both "got" and "gotten", there is variation between registers, formality, regions and individuals.

"You got it right" is past tense. There is a past meaning, "You said the right answer". Of course that implies something about the present. It has the same implication as "You've gotten it right".

"You've got/gotten it right" are present perfect. They are present tenses, but because they are perfect tenses, their meaning is very similar to the past tense.

"Got" is an odd word. In formal written English you should often try to find a more precise verb.

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