“Have gotten” is the past participle for the verb “to get”

Present – Get
Past – Got
past participle – Have gotten.
Future – Will get.

I.e. “This has gotten out of hand.” “They have gotten themselves into trouble again”.

Whereas “to have” is its own verb.

i.e. “I have a Sharpie”.

Thanks, @Seek_Kolinahr.

So @troubleinharlem, HAVE you GOT it?

Wouldn’t that be “Have you gotten it?”

Grammatically, yes. But in this context, using “got” as a colloquialism.

“got” and “gotten” are both past participles of “get” – “have gotten” is a present perfect structure.

“have gotten” is much more common in American English than British English. I believe they actually mean slightly different things.

Fascinating link, @the100thmonkey

Funny, I consider myself pretty fluent in my language, but there’s always something that pops up out of nowhere. ^_^

I have never heard “gotten” used in the UK, except by visiting Americans. We would always say “got”, and usually also without the preceeding “have”.

eg instead of @Seek_Kolinahr ‘s “They have gotten themselves into trouble again” we would say “They got themselves into trouble again”.

Additionally, have can be a main verb or an auxiliary to a different main verb. The have in I have sneezed is different from the one in I have a bucket.
The have in I have gotten a bucket is used as an auxiliary, but in I have a bucket it’s the main verb usage. So gotten is not just something you can optionally add to have, it’s actually a whole different construction either way.

Anyway, I think the difference between have and have gotten is that have describes a state of currently possessing something, while have gotten focuses on a past event of acquiring it and only implies you still have it right now.