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Got vs Goto - What's the difference?

got | goto |

As a verb got

is simple past of get.

As a noun GOTO is

any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution.

got

English

Verb

(head)
  • (get)
  • We got the last bus home.
  • (British, NZ)
  • By that time we'd got very cold.
    I've got two children.
    How many children have you got ?
  • I can't go out tonight, I've got to study for my exams.
  • (Southern US, with to) ; have (to).
  • I got to go study.
  • * 1971 , Carol King and Gerry Goffin, “Smackwater Jack”, Tapestry , Ode Records
  • We got to ride to clean up the streets / For our wives and our daughters!
  • (Southern US, UK, slang) have
  • They got a new car.
    He got a lot of nerve.

    Usage notes

    * (past participle of get) The second sentence literally means "At some time in the past I got (obtained) two children", but in "have got" constructions like this, where "got" is used in the sense of "obtained", the sense of obtaining is lost, becoming merely one of possessing, and the sentence is in effect just a more colloquial way of saying "I have two children". Similarly, the third sentence is just a more colloquial way of saying "How many children do you have?" * (past participle of get) The American and archaic British usage of the verb conjugates as get-got-gotten or as get-got-got depending on the meaning (see for details), whereas the modern British usage of the verb has mostly lost this distinction and conjugates as get-got-got in most cases. * (expressing obligation) "Got" is a filler word here with no obvious grammatical or semantic function. "I have to study for my exams" has the same meaning. It is often stressed in speech: "You've just got to see this."

    Synonyms

    * gotta (informal )

    Statistics

    *

    goto

    English

    Noun

    (head)
  • (computing) Any construct which produces an unstructured jump in the flow of execution.
  • The setjmp/longjmp facility in C is essentially a GOTO .

    Derived terms

    *GOTO-less