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I've been told that "His theory got disproved" is not correct English (even in colloquial speech), and that I should say "His theory has been disproved" instead. I usually use "to get" as a substitute for "have been" (e.g. "He got thrown out of school" instead of "He has been thrown out of school"), but why is that not possible in the sentence mentioned in the title (or is it not possible at all, and I've been using "to get" wrong all the time)?

Laurel
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Nicolas
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    There are certain people who don't like the word got and think it's incorrect English whenever it is used. Ignore them. Maybe got is more colloquial, but it's not wrong. – Peter Shor Aug 28 '17 at 22:03
  • In formal settings, stick to a form of be for passive voice. A scientific journal will frown on things such as The sample got heated to 350 C. In the other hand, if someone disses your favorite football player, go ahead and tell them to get stuffed. – Spencer Aug 29 '17 at 00:54
  • His theory was (/has been) disproved. Using got sounds terrible to this speaker of American English. – Arm the good guys in America Aug 29 '17 at 01:26
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    @Spencer "Sample got" got 3000 hits in Google Scholar. I scrolled through over 100 pages of hits. It seems to be a real 3000 hits. About half could have been reworded with was. "The sample accidentally got heated to 350 C" would be acceptable to a lot more people. Got isn't usually used when an agent accomplishes their intent. It tends to be used for bad/surprising things. – Phil Sweet Aug 29 '17 at 01:28
  • Related: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/143421/passive-with-to-get –  Aug 29 '17 at 07:36

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The use of get to form a passive is well established in English of all varieties. Examples can be found in the OED dating back to the 1600s.

Where some people acquire an aversion to forms of the verb "get" is beyond me.

Galfridus
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  • Where we get the aversion from is not hearing it regularly in our social circles. No-one in my social circle uses "innit", and I inadvertently judge people when I hear it. The same applies to passive get. – AndyT Aug 29 '17 at 10:42