When in a sentence I want to use the present perfect of get, I say have/has gotten.
A friend of mine (who is American) corrects me, saying I should use have/has got. From my English classes, I remember that the past participle of get is gotten.
Why does my friend tell me that it is not correct to use have gotten?
If that makes any difference, my friend lives on the east coast, closer to the New England zone.
The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol 6, confirming what Barrie England wrote in his answer, says:
In tracing the history of American grammar, it is important to note that in many instances what might seem to have been a change in American English compared with the standard English of Great Britain is in fact no change at all - it is British English that has changed, not American. For example, eighteenth-century speakers of English generally formed the past participle of get 'receive' as gotten, as in Your brother has gotten my mail. In the nineteenth century, prestigious speakers in England began to drop the -en ending: Your brother has got my mail. Most Americans, however, continued using the older form gotten.
Has gotten, have gotten and had gotten are found in American English, but they are not normally used in British English, which prefers has got, have got and had got.
The terms have got and have gotten are used differently in American English. Additionally, while (as I understand it) have and have got are used the same in British English, they are typically used differently in American English.
Examples:
I have a cat.
A: When are you going to get a cat?
B: I've got one.
B (alternate): I have one already.
A:Have you gotten a cat yet?
B: I've gotten three since we last spoke!
I think that "have got" is more used to represent something that you have possessed for a while, where "have gotten" would mean something more recent.
To be honest, I rarely hear "have got". I think something like "I got" is more often used.
I'm not a teacher, that's my experience speaking English in a daily basis.
