Dear D:

You wrote:
> I was looking through your list of common mistakes. I think it is missing
> a section on got/have. “Got” does not mean have. “I got brown hair,” does
> not mean “I have brown hair.” “You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania,” is
> actually wrong for two reasons. The third principle part of “get” is
> “gotten”, not “got”. Since the license plate does not mean “In the past
> you received a friend,” it should just read, “You have a friend in
> Pennsylvania.”

“Got” is the standard past participle in the UK. “Gotten” is standard in North America. Most authorities accept both.

In colloquial speech, “got” often does take the place of “have” as you pointed out. I would certainly avoid this in any kind of formal speech, but when I see a Pennsylvania license plate, I think of that old James Taylor song, “You’ve Got a Friend.” It might not be good formal English, but they probably chose the slogan for the “warm fuzzies” that people might get thinking of that song.

Basically, we did not address the use of irregular verbs except when they were spelling problems. We felt that most native speakers were comfortable with them, and most non-native speakers had charts or books directed for their needs.