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For a sentence

I got this book from Tom,

if we simply rewrite it with passive voice, it would seem to be like

This book was gotten from Tom.

But I haven't quite met such expressions as

Something is gotten from somebody.

Is it idiomatic to say so?

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  • 1
    From "50 tips for better English": "The passive voice is to be avoided" (also: "Always avoid alliteration." and "Be more or less precise.") ;-)
    – bakunin
    Commented Jul 27, 2023 at 8:45
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    Google Books shows quite a few examples of "was gotten", mainly from US court reports and similar transcripts of colloquial speech. It sounds a bit odd to me, but I'm British, and we don't say "gotten". I'd strongly prefer to use the active, or if you must put "this book" first, maybe "This book came from Tom" or "This book is/was from Tom".
    – Stuart F
    Commented Jul 27, 2023 at 9:03
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    For the sake of clarity, the passive voice is to be avoided if there's no good reason to use it. But there are plenty of occasions where the passive is perfectly grammatical and idiomatic. Sometimes is gotten from is used like "is caught from" in a public health disease-transmission context in American English speech.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 27, 2023 at 11:12
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    Results (experimental, mathematic, etc) are gotten by or gotten from following certain steps. So gotten can also mean "derived" or "arrived at" or "achieved" or "obtained" in addition to "acquired".
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 27, 2023 at 18:46
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    BE gotten in AmE is not always colloquial or informal. You'll find plenty of scientific and mathematical texts where results are gotten.
    – TimR
    Commented Jul 27, 2023 at 18:56

2 Answers 2

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A little searching turns up a few results, most dated, some rather formal.

What an opportunity there might be here if what people fear of landlords is true, that by pressure they will get an agreement in writing, or, at any rate, that the tenant may well say at a later date: "I did not understand; this agreement was got from me by intimidation, pressure and misrepresentation:" It is much better to let matters stand as the Bill prescribes, and leave it to the tenant to go to the local authority to obtain the certificate of disrepair (British Parliament, House of Lords, 1954)

The hon: Member may not know that my information was got from Lord Aberdeen and from Sir John Ross, the Commissioner of Police: Of course, if the hon: Baronet knows better than either of them, I will sit down and listen to him: (British Parliament, House of Lords, 1914)

The men of the elfmound, both kings and nobles, have been wooing me; but nought was gotten from me, because ever since I was able to speak, I have loved thee and given thee a child's love for the high tales about thee and thy splendour. (Harvard Classics)

On cross-examination, he said: "He wrote to me (i.e. in way of conversation) that the first will was gotten from him by false pretences. (New Brunswick. Supreme Court · 1883)

Well, she was questioned through an interpreter, and an affidavit was gotten from her also. (Warren Commission · 1964)

Did not Mr. Perkins claim that his authority to deliver these lectures and receive compensation therefor was gotten from you? (United States. Congress. Joint committee to investigate Interior dept. and Forest service. 1911)

In the right context, these sound perfectly natural (idiomatic).

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    "This book was gotten from Tom" doesn't sound like it has the right context. // I'd not use 'idiomatic' for 'acceptable in rarefied registers'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 10:34
  • @EdwinAshworth The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines idiomatic as '(2) peculiar to a particular group, individual, or style'. This is the very definition of idiomatic. I do agree that without context it is difficult to say whether 'this book was gotten from Tom' would be a good choice.
    – DW256
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 11:22
  • Oxford Languages (the 'Google definition'; I'm not sure how best to attribute these nowadays) also lists that as the second sense. The first, default, sense is 'using, containing, or denoting expressions that are natural to a native speaker'. The verier definition of the word. CACD even has 'correct without being too formal'. A more helpful answer would use 'idiomatic in the "normal within certain registers" sense' to avoid confusion. People still think 'pertaining directly to idioms' is the default sense.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 11:31
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This is too long to be a comment, but since there haven't been any answers yet, I'll give it a shot.

The passive with got sounds peculiar to me. The reason has to do with the semantics of got and the voice of the passive construction. My dialect uses got to emphasize and focus on the act of acquiring something, whereas the passive voice is used to tone down and de-emphasize agency in general.

Consider

I see he got himself a new tattoo/car/girlfriend.

vs

I see he obtained himself a new tattoo/car/girlfriend.

The second one sounds terrible to me because obtained is in conflict with the emphatic personal pronoun. Obtained de-emphasizes what himself is trying to emphasize. But got is felicitous when collocated with himself.

Using the passive construction with gotten often creates the same sort of conflict.

he got, was got, was gotten he acquired, was acquired he obtained, was obtained

Was obtained is 4 times as common as he obtained. Was acquired is 1.8 times as common as he acquired. Was gotten is 0.0018 times as common as he got. Was got is 0.11 times as common as he got.

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2
  • And now I can see an earlier answer.
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 18:54
  • note that the graphs accidently use a capital H in the he. A small h was used when I derived the ratios in the last paragraph.
    – Phil Sweet
    Commented Jul 28, 2023 at 19:04

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