I've got mail

Why is "I have got mail" incorrect? It's the same as "I've got mail." It's the present perfect tense of "I get mail."

"I've ____ email" is incorrect since a verb is missing: "email" is a noun. You would say "I've got email" or "I've received email."

I think you are confusing the verb "have" (as in "I have mail") vs. the auxiliary verb "have" (as in "I have received mail").

I loathe, loathe, loathe "have got" in all its forms. I'm too lazy to go find any hard copy style guide to back up my idiosyncratic hatred, but I'm convinced that ad people hate copy editors. AOL SHOULD have said "You have mail." The 'got' IS incorrect, because "get" means "obtain" or "be subjected to" not "receive." As such, (and mind you, this is Church of Bees Grammar), they could have said "You've received mail" but it doesn't have that slang-y, buddy-type feel, does it?

Also, as far as I remember from my ESL tutoring days, there is no "have got." It's get, got, has/have/had gotten.

Another heinous example: "Got milk?" Do. you. have. milk?

/me goes back to corner, growling occasionally

P.S. Sorry... back to the original post... the contraction is only used when have is indicating the perfect, pluperfect, or future perfect tense. When it's THE verb in the sentence, American English generally doesn't contract.

You get mail, makes sense. You got mail is okay as a declarative sentence. You've got mail sounds like an idiom, peculiar to the US made popular internationally through AOL. Get does mean receive. Receive is a particular word, for which get is the Germanic answer for it, unless you are fond of bringing back thidge or onfang.

You have onfanged mail!

"Got Milk?" is perhaps the worst advertising endeavor to have ever... ::clears throat::... graced humankind.

Sorry, how is 'I have got...' wrong? I have got chicken pox; I have got a big nose. It doesn't just mean obtain, or receive, but also to have possession of. It's use in that way, according to my dictionary, goes back to the 15th century, so it can hardly be called incorrect usage.

tko-- what prompted these questions? Just curious.

There doesn't have to be a reason for using any contraction such as those you show here.

In casual dialogue my characters would use any of these versions - whatever came off the tip of the tongue and was appropriate to the character.

tko said:

"I have mail" is correct.

"I have got mail" is incorrect. Who says?

But then why does

"I've email" sound wrong

and

"I've got mail" sound right? No idea.

Is my sense of English simply deserting me? Maybe.

If you use "I've got mail," why use the contraction at all? Why not? For casual dialog, what would version you use?

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'Have got' is idiomatic. The 'got' is redundant and unnecessary, but it's extremely common and perfectly fine informal usage. I probably wouldn't use it in an academic paper or a very formal nonfiction piece, but for fiction and less formal nonfiction? No problem.

Lapinou said:

Sorry, how is 'I have got...' wrong? I have got chicken pox; I have got a big nose. It doesn't just mean obtain, or receive, but also to have possession of. It's use in that way, according to my dictionary, goes back to the 15th century, so it can hardly be called incorrect usage.

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I think this may be an Atlantic divide. I've read books in which English schoolchildren are admonished to say, "I have," not "I've got." But I don't remember ever being told that in the US, even when I was in school fifty years back.

What teachers used to struggle with here was getting the "have" in there at all. "I got a doctor's appointment today," is actually the way most of us speak, so much so that little kids will regularize it to, "He gots."

I think 'got' means obtained or received, in this sense. So 'have got' means have received. Whereas, 'have' means you are in possession of it - like you are waving it around in your hand. I think both are clumsy and I would say 'some mail' rather than just mail.

When you are talking about email, then it could either mean you have 'an email message' or 'an email system'. If I were talking about the system, I would say 'I have email'. If I were talking about a message, I would say 'I have an email'. The 'got' bit would refer to me obtaining it in the past.

Now, should it be got or gotten?????

bonitakale said:

I think this may be an Atlantic divide. I've read books in which English schoolchildren are admonished to say, "I have," not "I've got." But I don't remember ever being told that in the US, even when I was in school fifty years back.

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I was an English schoolchild and was never admonished for this. It's accepted use in the UK as well as the US.

Why say "have got" when just the word "have" will do?
But the use of both words together is very common now, and considered okay.

Years ago when I was growing up, both the teachers and my parents considered the use of "got" coupled with the word "has" or "have" to be redundant and not necessary; poor grammar.

As I said, though, it's widely used today and accepted, but I only use "have got" in my characters' dialogues.

"You've got mail" is just a snappy saying. It's not grammatically incorrect, although "you have mail" is a little more standard.

Re: "You've mail:" UK English speakers often contract "have" even when it is the main verb in the sentence. In American English, you would not contract it unless it was an auxiliary--"I have eaten fish often" is fine as "I've eaten fish often" but "I have two children" would generally be considered ungrammatical as "I've two children." In UK English, the latter construction is fine.

See the last point on this blog post about grammar myths from Grammarphobia:

TOMBSTONE: Use have got, not have gotten.
R.I.P. People who take this prohibition seriously have gotten their grammar wrong.

At one time, everyone agreed that the verb get had two past participles: got and gotten. (The past participle is the form of a verb that's used with have, had, or has.) It's true that the British stopped using have gotten about 300 years ago, while we in the Colonies kept using both have got and have gotten. But the result is not that Americans speak improper English. The result is that we have retained a nuance of meaning that the unfortunate Britons have lost.

When we say, Bruce has got three Armani suits, we mean he has them in his possession. It's another way of saying he has them.

When we say, Bruce has gotten three Armani suits, we mean he's acquired or obtained them.

It's a very useful distinction, and one that the British would do well to reacquire

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"have got" means "possess" or "suffer from":

I've got a headache.
I've got mail in my mailbox.
I've got the flu.
I've got milk in the fridge.

Of course, you can simply say "I have the flu" or "I have milk." "Have got" is just a different way of saying "I have."

maestrowork said:

Why is "I have got mail" incorrect? It's the same as "I've got mail." It's the present perfect tense of "I get mail."

"I've ____ email" is incorrect since a verb is missing: "email" is a noun. You would say "I've got email" or "I've received email."

I think you are confusing the verb "have" (as in "I have mail") vs. the auxiliary verb "have" (as in "I have received mail").

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Yes, and "I've got mail" is also incorrect. It's simply become such an ingrained part of everyday speech that we all accept it as correct, so it has become corerct. But it's still wrong.

People, and too many writers, forget that a contraction may be one word, but it's made up of two words.

If you wouldn't write or say "I have got mail", you shouldn't write or say "I've got mail". Just "I have mail" will do nicely.

Jamesaritchie said:

Yes, and "I've got mail" is also incorrect. It's simply become such an ingrained part of everyday speech that we all accept it as correct, so it has become corerct. But it's still wrong.

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Can you cite a source that says it's wrong? I looked it up in the dictionary and "have got" is a correct, even in this context. Obviously one can always say "I have mail" but "I've got mail" isn't incorrect according to the dictionary.

"Do you've any mail for me" sounds a little weird.

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You would not use contraction for "have" if it's a verb instead of the auxiliary verb.

I've gotten a headache from this discussion.

Here's what I found:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/have-got-grammar.aspx

Don't confuse popular usage with correct grammatical usage.

English, however, is full of idiomatic usage. So if you could say "come what may" or "suffice it to say" is correct, then why not "I've got mail"?

maestrowork said:

English, however, is full of idiomatic usage. So if you could say "come what may" or "suffice it to say" is correct, then why not "I've got mail"?

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I no longer trust the dictionary. Seriously. I consider "I've got" to be slang, filed under the same heading as text speak and the introduction of <3 as an actual dictionary entry. Irregardless? Now a word. It does make me crazy that if enough people use something incorrectly, it becomes acceptable language. This one should be filed under "Is it right? No. Is it used anyway? Yes."

I mostly see the "have got" situation when there's particular emphasis on the necessity or possession of something:

"You have got to give me that recipe."
"I have got the worst headache."
"I have got to get this finished by five."

And I'm okay with it then.

I'm not such a fan of, "He has got three Armani suits," or, "You have got mail."

Contradictorily, I'm happy with, "He's got three Armani suits," but probably only when it's being used to show voice.