English usage and grammar

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Have got vs Have (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi folks.

Can I ask: Is it better to say “We’ve got to get going” or “ We have to get going”?

I hear the former in conversation and it slightly irks me. I think it’s because of the redundancy (?) in the sentence. Which is better, grammatically? The latter feels cleaner. Am I wrong?

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not a linguist by any measure, but it seems that you should use just "have" when writing, but that it will seem more natural to use "have got" when speaking.

I'm not the guy to explain why this is, but want to be sure you get some kind of feedback for your post. Hope it helps!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

IME saying "have got" like that is a very UK thing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

IME? Is that "In My Experience"? Don't think I've seen that one before, but might need to put it in the pocket.