{"id":284,"date":"2010-10-05T01:02:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-05T01:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/?p=284"},"modified":"2020-06-26T18:12:13","modified_gmt":"2020-06-26T18:12:13","slug":"youve-got-mail-bad-english-grammar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/youve-got-mail-bad-english-grammar\/","title":{"rendered":"You\u2019ve Got Mail: An Example of Bad Grammar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I opened my AOL mail account and this example of bad grammar went off in my ears like a car backfiring. We hear it so often that people barely understand that it is entirely grammatically incorrect<\/span>. Many have come to think that it is correct.<\/h3>\n

What’s wrong with the ubiquitous “You’ve got mail<\/strong>“?\u00a0 This phrase is used in my own AOL account and shared by the blockbuster movie of the same name (which features this email relationship).<\/p>\n

Even the most grammatically correct of us say “You’ve got to see this” but this is admittedly BAD GRAMMAR.<\/h3>\n

Let’s look at this verb by verb, beginning with the verb “(to) have<\/span>“.<\/h4>\n
    \n
  • The simple present tense<\/span><\/strong><\/span> of this verb would be “You have mail.<\/span><\/strong> (Come pick it up.)”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
    • The present perfect tense<\/span><\/strong><\/span> of this verb would be “You’ve gotten mail<\/span>.<\/strong> (Why haven’t you opened it?)”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Let’s look at the verb “(to) get<\/span>“.<\/h4>\n
        \n
      • The simple present<\/span> tense<\/strong> of this verb would be “You get mail <\/span><\/strong>(every day except Sundays).”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
        • The simple past tense<\/span><\/span><\/strong> would be “You got mail<\/span> <\/strong>(yesterday).”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
          • The present perfect<\/span> tense<\/strong> would be “You have gotten mail* <\/strong><\/span>(every day for the last 2 months. Why haven’t I?”\u00a0 *<\/span> or “You’ve gotten mail<\/span><\/strong>…”)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

            So there is no such correct verb form for “You’ve Got Mail” at all! And yet we hear this composite of verb forms\u00a0 everywhere.<\/p>\n

            A word of advice: Avoid saying it! Instead of “You’ve Got Mail”, say <\/span>“You Have Mail<\/strong>.”<\/span> And instead of saying “You’ve got to hear this,” say “You have to hear this<\/span><\/strong>.<\/h5>\n

            And if you are going to use it occasionally<\/em> in conversation, be aware that it is not correct English and be able to use correct grammar when socially necessary. Speaking with bad grammar might mean you don’t get the job you are looking for, and more.\u00a0 And certainly never use it in writing. Unless, of course, you want to write copy for advertisements.<\/p>\n

            Stay tuned for a future podcast, where we discuss the advertising slogan, “Got Milk?” and why that too is grammatically incorrect.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            Today I opened my AOL mail account and this example of bad grammar went off in my ears like a car backfiring. We hear it so often that people barely understand that it is entirely grammatically incorrect. Many have come to think that it is correct. What’s wrong with the ubiquitous “You’ve got mail“?\u00a0 This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture","category-grammar","category-writing","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions\/823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eslhelpdesk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}