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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Slight semantic difference?

0Hi, I have a short question.02br
02br
00What is the difference between 'Did you eat lunch?' and 'Have you eaten lunch?'02br
02br
00The context is like this: I am going to the company cafeteria and see a colleaque coming. At this moment I can utter both expressions. But which one has the connotation of 'If you have not eaten lunch, I would like to treat you, come join me for lunch.'02br
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00I would appreciate any native speaker's comments. Thank you.02br
02br
00Jaeger0-
  

Top answer

" - it needs "yet" or "already" to sound completely natural. Did you already eat lunch? Did you eat lunch yet?

— BarbaraPA

  • " - it needs "yet" or "already" to sound completely natural.
  • Did you already eat lunch?
  • Did you eat lunch yet?
  • ")0-
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7 Answers
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0Native speaker intuition tells me that "Have you [already] eaten lunch?" is the closer one for "Come join me." 02br
02br
00(Although there is no sense that you will treat in either one.)02br
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00With "Did you eat lunch?" - it needs "yet" or "already" to sound completely natural. Did you already eat lunch? Did you eat lunch yet? (And either of those cou
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0 Hmmm.02br
02br
00 You can say "Did you eat lunch?"02br
00 You can say "01b00Have02b00 you 01b00eaten02b00 lunch?"02br
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00 And you want to know which of the two is more like "If you 01b00have02b00 not 01b00eaten02b00 lunch, ... join me." 02br
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0 01blockquote
01cite10CalifJim12cite10Hmmm.12br
12br
101. Did you eat lunch?12br
102. Have you eaten lunch?12br
10CJ12br
12br
10Is #1 AmE while #2 is BrE?12br
12br
12blockquote
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0 You'd better first say or hear first that01b00 join02b00, don't make assumptions. 02br
00Crashing someone's lunch (break) isn't nice050010id6
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0 01blockquote
01cite10Yoong Liat12cite10Is #1 AmE while #2 is BrE?12br
12blockquote
10I don't think so, it's just people using the tenses appropriate to the time they had in mind in relation to the event having taken place:02br
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00 77 from bbc.co.uk for "did you eat"02br
00 105 from
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0Hi guys, 02br
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00Personally, I'd probably say 01font00'Did you have lunch yet?02font00' I hear that a lot.02br
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00Best wishes, Clive0-
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0 01blockquote
00Is #1 AmE while #2 is BrE?12blockquote
10Yes and no. 02br
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00 Given the same situation, a past simple is more likely to be generated by a speaker of AmE, while a present perfect is more likely to be generated by a speaker of BrE. But the two tenses don't mean exactly the same thing, and neither of the two speake
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