A Word, Please:

The new year is looking up. The stock market’s pointing in the right direction. Home values are pointing in the right direction. And I have a good feeling that this could be the year my cats outgrow the urge to shred up bits of toilet paper and leave them near the space heater.

So now that there may be some good news in the air, I’m ready to lay some bad news on you. Here it is: You know how you walk around saying “have got” all the time without a care in the world? As in, “He has got a lot of money” or “She has got to do something about those cats.” Well, a few people out there have been taking notice — and not in a good way. In fact, for many, “has got” is a major irritant.

“My new peeve is ‘has/have got,’” writes a user at the Edmunds.com message forums, pointing to examples like “I have got a lot of spare time.” “Why is the word ‘got’ even used there?”

Why indeed? As the “have got” haters point out, “I have a lot of spare time” says the same thing with fewer words. So “have got” is just a lumpy substitute for “have.”

They’ve got a good point. But many take it too far.

Some will tell you that, because this usage of “have got” means the same thing as “have,” it is necessarily wrong. In that way, they say, it’s like a double negative. If “I do not want pasta” is correct, then “I do not want no pasta” is illogical. But it’s not the most apt comparison. Unnecessary wordiness does not a grammatical error make.

In fact, some of the most respected grammar authorities defend this brand of “have got” as a perfectly acceptable idiom with a respectable history of appearing under some very respected bylines — Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde among them.

“The phrase ‘have got’ — often contracted (as in ‘I’ve got’) — has long been criticized as unnecessary for ‘have.’ In fact?.?.?.?the phrasing with ‘got’ adds emphasis and is perfectly idiomatic,” writes Bryan Garner in “Garner’s Modern American Usage.”

On the other hand, the “Oxford English Dictionary” has described it as “colloquial or vulgar,” even as the dictionary lists some of the esteemed writers who use it. Those are strong words. You might not like the idea of someone using them to describe your writing.

This “have got,” by the way, really has two meanings. It can mean “have” (I have got a headache) but it can also mean “must” (“I have got to start carrying aspirin.”)