'Have got' and 'Had'?
I understand that 'have got' means 'have', so they are exchangeable. I also understand that native speakers tend to say just 'got' by omitting 'have'. In this regard, I have a question.
'We got a new boss last week.'- I think 'got' here means 'have got' as the past tense. Am I correct? Then, why can't I use 'had' in place of 'got' in this sentence? As far as know, if I use 'had', the meaning of the sentence will get changed. Could you please help me to understand?

Question

Answer

"Got" has different meanings depending on usage and context.

In your sentence, "got" is used to mean "received", not to mean "possessed" so you can't replace "got" here with "have" or "have got".

What happened was that you "received" or were "assigned" a new boss last week. This was a completed action.

"Have got" or "have" are present tense.

"Had" is also a completed action in the past that means "possessed" so its meaning is not the same as "got" meaning received.

Answer

Hi Sonia!
"to get" has lots of meanings; in this case, it means that a new boss arrived to the company, so here "we got" means "we received". "Had" would rather mean that the boss arrived earlier, so it doesn't refer to someone who has just arrived.

I noticed that Canadians tend to omit "got" from sentences, like "Have you any evidence?". But it still means "have you got/do you have".

Hope this helps.

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