Just quit smoking

Both are fine.

Dear friends,

just a small remark on the subject. While the forms are interchangeable, using simple past is still considered a feature of American English, and one is more likely to hear the simple perfect counterpart in educated British English. Moreover, all purists would regard the past simple form as substandard.

Respectfully, Gleb Chebrikoff

. Moreover, all purists would regard the past simple form as substandard.
Even for a purist, that is a ludicrous view.

Gleb_Chebrikoffthe simple perfect counterpart

I am familiar with simple tenses -- those that are not perfect, progressive, nor passive -- but it escapes me what could have the self-contradictory name of 'simple perfect'. Maybe it's something special in British terminology.

CJ

Dear Mr Micawber,

the issue in question is not that elementary as it may superficially seem to be. Telling students that the distinction between tense forms is neutralised in our example does perfectly well in most instances, but those who seek further explanations may become confused by a number of expert opinions, such as this one: 'Just, in the sense of 'very recent past', o

Dear Jim,

according to one of the many classifications, perfect verb forms are represented by a binary opposition - simple perfect vs. progressive perfect. For the sake of convenience, this 'simple' part is often omitted. As a result, present perfect simple becomes known under 'the alias' of 'present perfect'. It is just another way of looking at it, so in no way does it interfer

It seems the simple past with just, already, etc. is perfectly standard and accepted, but it's not so in the UK. However, it's hard to know to what extent this is true. There are never enough Brits around here, LOL. I recenlty read that the simple past with "just" is starting to spread in the UK, but it's still rare and mainly seen in advertisements.

Gleb_Chebrikoffsimple perfect vs. progressive perfect.

Ah. Simple vs. progressive. Got it.

CJ