(no subject)

[graculus]

Ack. An editor whose opinions I usually happily accept wants me to replace 'got' with 'gotten' in one sentence of a recently-submitted zine story. Am I over-reacting when my immediate reaction is 'hell, no!'?

In case anyone was wondering, the sentence in question: There was little doubt that the sound of breaking glass was coming from inside, but how could anyone have got onto the train?

[Poll #713865]

Comments

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

The only way I can see the change being necessary if it's in a piece of dialogue from an American character. But in the narration, 'got' is perfectly correct.

[graculus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think I'd have less problems with it if it were in dialogue, but it's still not a word I hear coming out of the mouth of these particular characters, so... ;)

[atdelphi.livejournal.com]

Depends on time period and education of the character too, of course. A modern everyday North American is going to use "gotten" (it always looks wrong to me when I make myself use "got" when writting British characters) but if there's a reason the character would use the British syntax or it predates the Amerenglish shift, then it shouldn't be an issue.