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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://english.best/questions/preview/1688-waiter-you-ll-have-no-luck-there-either-we-haven-t-got-any#google_vignette
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://english.best/questions/preview/1688-waiter-you-ll-have-no-luck-there-either-we-haven-t-got-any#google_vignette
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What’s weird is that for most of my life I thought that “haven’t got” was very low class and just plain wrong. That’s saying something considering that I’m lower class at heart and don’t exactly used the Queen’s English.
However, when I started spending more time online I saw a lot of non-AmE users say “haven’t got”. I finally decided that where they are from it’s common.
In the above case we would say “We don’t have any left”
or a waiter might say:
“I’m sorry, we’re out of that [also].”
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I remember in the late 1990s I had a British grammar book that featured constructions such as “Have you a car?” (Instead of “have you got a car”) and “You had better tell him” meaning “You should really tell him” and it explained how to use the modal verb “ought”. A lot has changed since then even in British grammar.
Prior to this statement, the cook may have said to the waiter: ”eighty-six the beef stew.” This means that they are out of it. I’m not sure if this is still used in restaurants, though you might read it in a book.
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