Present Perfect or Past Simple to express duration in the past?

Question

Have you ever danced?

This is kind of a usual question. What if I want to ask someone about his experience and find out how long it lasted. Can I say

Have you ever danced for 5 hours?

(and we're just sitting in a cafe and talking about it) Or do I have to put it like this

Did you ever dance for 5 hours?

Some people say Brits prefer "Have you ever..." while American usage tends to be "Did you ever..." (but that's not universal). Here's some discussion. — n. m. could be an AI, Aug 02 '13 at 16:12
There's no difference; either can be used. Depends more on how many syllables you want than anything else. This use of the Perfect, by the way, is the Existential sense, one of the four senses of the Perfect Construction. — John Lawler, Aug 02 '13 at 17:25
Obligatory Mitch Hedberg: I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long. — Amory, Aug 02 '13 at 18:52

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

2

Have you ever is usually used to reference an indefinite time in the past. Did you ever implies a more specific time. For example:

Have you ever played chess?

Did you ever finish playing that game of chess?

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Aug 02 '13 at 17:05

Andrew Ng

1,599

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 02 '13 at 17:38

There seems to be a belief that the simple past/present perfect ("have you ever"/"did you ever") distinction is a Brit/American thing, but I disagree. I would say that in standard American usage, using the simple past to talk about things that happened or may have happened over an indeterminate period of time is incorrect.

To my ear, constructions like "Did you ever try Hawaiian pizza?" or "I never danced for 5 hours" sound East Coast and a bit "street" to my ears. It could be the case that for certain regional dialects, this is perfectly acceptable, but if such a thing as standard American can be said to exist, it is wrong.

Present Perfect or Past Simple to express duration in the past?

2 Answers2