Reply #240: Got grammar, my dear newcomer? [View All]

Got Brain?
(...)
Yeah, I didn't think you did.

You should not have written "did". You should have written "had". Because your second sentence refers to the first, the verb you choose should be the proper auxiliary verb for got. Compare:

Yeah, I didn't think you did (got brain).

with

Yeah, I didn't think you had (got brain).

While the first sentence is clearly wrong, the second merely sounds funny, because the allusion to the "Got Milk" slogan is distorted somewhat by inclusion in another clause. "Had got" is correct English, though an American would usually prefer to say either "had gotten brain", or simply "had brain", depending on what exactly he meant to convey. Some insist that had got is informal, and had alone is preferable, but not everyone agrees.

Speakers of British English consider got the standard participle for get, and gotten an archaism; in the United States, both got and gotten are standard.

Isn't that interesting?

My brain and your grammar aside (and neither was what anyone here was originally discussing), my comment about Thomas Jefferson is only the literal truth. You do remember his nasty habit of holding people prisoner and forcing them to do yard work for him, don't you? Why my mentioning this drove you to a fit of condescension, I haven't any idea.

How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty from the drivers of Negroes?

-- Samuel Johnson