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Let's say I'm in an Italian restaurant with my family. We do something that doesn't please the owner, so he gets very angry and in Italian he yells at us to leave. We get up to leave. He keeps yelling at us, so I say:

"We get it, alright? You don't have to yell."

Is the emboldened part perfectly natural in the context to mean we understand what you're saying (even though we don't know your language)?

Would it be more natural to say:

"We got it..."

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  • I think this is fine, but I can't explain why. There's just no reason for me to think it's wrong.
    – Criticizing Israel not allowed
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 17:18
  • Most of the Italian restaurants near me are owned by Brits and staffed by Polish people.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 18:53

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In the context of a midwestern American, from a natural-sounding point of view; "We get it, alright?" is fine.

"We got it" sounds strange, because it's missing the verb -- 'have'. Once you use "have", you're in a past-tense, so you'd switch "got" to the past participle of "gotten". The sentence ultimately would be "We have gotten it [your point]". That is entirely too much to yell back at a rude restaurant owner, and entirely too formal for the exchange at hand, so "we have" would be shortened to "we've".

"We get it" is my vote here.

(small correction: your question originally had 'we do someone' when you probably meant 'we do something')

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    ... and in a British context we would not use 'gotten'. Either "We get it" or "We've got it" works.
    – Aidan
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 16:59
  • Why do you think that "we got it" is not acceptable? "We got it" is the simple past, which seems like the right (or at least a valid) tense for expressing something that just happened: "Did you understand what I was saying?" "Yes, we understood. We got it."
    – Juhasz
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 17:30
  • Probably contextual as "midwestern American". Not saying I'm right, just that's what sounds correct to me based on living in the bullseye-middle of 'murica and hearing my neighbors talk.
    – Bryan B
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 18:12
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    @Juhasz We got it is not idiomatic. People don't speak that way. It's not a question of acceptable. You can say we got it if you please. But it serves to show your ignorance of the English idiom.
    – Ronald Sole
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 18:16
  • Do I see a bit of ethnic stereotyping going on in the OP? What led to the shouting?
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jan 5, 2021 at 18:54

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