Ok, this has been bugging me. AOL has a voice that says: “You’ve got mail.” You know the voice. It was featured in a movie. But is it correct English?

Shouldn’t it say either “You have mail” or “You’ve gotten mail”? What rules of grammar give us “You’ve got mail” => “You have got mail”? Of course you wouldn’t have gotten mail until you actually read it.

So I think “You have mail” would be the proper thing to hear. Leave it to AOL to elevate preverted English to ranks of big budget movies. Or, maybe that says something about the movie industry. Or, maybe I was just bored to tears with “The Talented Mr. Ripley”.

“We all of us live too much in a circle.” – B. Disraeli