0

What is the difference between "get/got/gotten" and "am/is/was/are/were/be/have or has been" in the (Passive Voice) grammar?

For example:

My computer gets/got/gotten damaged.

and

My computer is/was/has been damaged.

And what about if I mix with them in a sentence? For example:

My computer is got/gotten damaged.

Thanks for reading and being interested of my question :).

macraf
  • 2,740
mohammed al saffar
  • 1
  • In some sense, got is more specific than was. For example, consider the joke "Yesterday I was married. Today I am divorced." It doesn't work if you say "Yesterday I got married," because "Yesterday I got married" is not ambiguous. – Peter Shor Aug 15 '15 at 13:05
  • The get-passive is more colloquial. – rogermue Oct 14 '15 at 15:16

1 Answers1

0

You just cannot say 'my computer is got/gotten damaged'. That is a really bad mistake. What you can say is 'my computer has been damaged'.

You can use get + -ed form to describe things that happen to us, often things which are unfortunate and which we don’t want to happen. I guess this pattern is called 'the get passive':

The cottage got really badly damaged in the floods last year.

Sorry we’re late. The train got delayed for over an hour outside Manchester.

But I don't see any significant differences if you say:

The cottage was really badly damaged in the floods last year.

Sorry we’re late. The train was delayed for over an hour outside Manchester.

It's just that the verb get/got/gotten is often used in these sentences

HUIta
  • 519
  • How can something be "badly damaged?" – michael_timofeev Aug 15 '15 at 13:48
  • @Michael: There is nothing wrong with "badly damaged"? Consider a damaged car. The cost of repairs can easily range from less than $500 to over $10,000. If it costs a lot, I assume you would think this was bad ... so it's badly damaged. – Peter Shor Aug 15 '15 at 16:56
  • @PeterShor is it me, or did Alex change the answer to "really badly damaged?" I don't remember seeing "really" there. I just think it's unnecessary to put an adverb in front of damaged. I'm probably in the minority (or deserted island) on this one, though. – michael_timofeev Aug 15 '15 at 17:08
  • @michael: He didn't change anything; I can see that this answer wasn't edited. – Peter Shor Aug 15 '15 at 17:10
  • @PeterShor ok...I'm still thinking about the difference between got and was...along with "what the fox say" from that other question... – michael_timofeev Aug 15 '15 at 17:13