Timeline for How many times has Tom 'been married'? vs How many times has Tom 'gotten married'?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 12, 2016 at 16:05 | comment | added | Green1313 | @Jay interesting comparison between "Do you have a box?" and "Did you get a box?" | |
| Feb 12, 2016 at 15:56 | comment | added | Jay | @FumbleFingers Maybe this is an American/British thing. As an American, I see both sentences as equally acceptable and as meaning the same thing. Compare to "Do you have a box?" versus "Did you get a box?" Not exactly the same meaning, but in practice pretty much interchangeable. If that's not true over there in Albion, well, hmm. Amusing. | |
| Feb 12, 2016 at 15:31 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Jay: This is rather strange. Two upvotes for bgStack's answer, and another one for your comment, effectively asserting that there's no significant semantic or implicit distinction for what seems to me to be extremely "marked" phrasing in the second case. And no votes at all for my answer pointing out exactly what the difference is. As the AmE gotten wouldn't often be used in BrE anyway, perhaps I'm seeing a clear-cut distinction that simply doesn't exist for AmE speakers. | |
| Feb 12, 2016 at 14:48 | comment | added | Jay | As we normally assume one marriage ceremony per marriage, the two questions are pretty much equivalent. Even if they didn't have a formal ceremony with the bride walking down the aisle and the groom getting drunk and all, they must have done some paperwork or something. | |
| Feb 12, 2016 at 14:34 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | I think you've accurately identified the difference, but I'm not convinced that difference is "subtle". My guess is that almost all native speakers would not only understand the basic semantic distinction (separate periods of being married, as opposed to separate marriage ceremonies). I think they'd also understand OP's second version as strongly implying that Tom gets married more often than most (perhaps because he treats the process more casually than others, or because he's very bad at choosing the right long-term partner). | |
| Feb 12, 2016 at 13:56 | history | answered | bgStack15 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |