"As an old woman with long gray hair, I hope that I've got open arms, an open heart, and an enormous amount of wisdom to share." - 38-year-old blonde Nicole Kidman, in Ladies' Home Journal
This quote contains two errors in diction that relate to tense.
The phrase "as an old woman with long gray hair" modifies the subject "I." At this time, Nicole is not an old woman with gray hair. She is a young woman with blonde hair. She is expressing how she might be in the future, so the introductory phrase should convey that this state will occur in the future. To correct this part of the sentence, change the introductory phrase to "when I am a woman with long gray hair."
The word "got" functions as two different tenses of the verb "to get." It can be used in the simple past tense ("I went to the store and got some milk.") It is also one of the two past participles of this verb. The other past participle, "gotten," is the more standard of the two and functions as most past participles do: to indicate an action that has taken place in the past and may be continuing in the present ("I have always gotten good grades.") The use of "got" as a past participle is informal and should not be used in standard written English or in formal speech.
When used colloquially as a past participle, "got" has two meanings: "have" in a sense referring to the present ("I used to have brown hair, but now I've got red hair") and "must" when used with an infinitive ("I have got to do well on this test.") This latter usage imparts a future sense to the action; however, no sense of necessity exists in the context of this quote. Since Nicole is speaking about a future condition, she should use the future tense. Change the verb to "will have."
This version of Nicole's statement corrects the errors:
"When I am an old woman with long gray hair, I hope that I will have open arms, an open heart, and an enormous amount of wisdom to share."
2 Comments
How interesting!
Thanks for this explanation which I find very interesting indeed. However, the form "gotten" is clearly American English and does not feature in the British variety.
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