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What exactly is the difference in meaning between the questions

Do you want to join us?

and

Did you want to join us?

in the context of a group of people asking asking another person who happens to be in the same place (for example, friends having dinner in a restaurant and bumping into another friend).

I would use the first variant, because to me "did" implies that the person who is asked had made up his/her mind before the question was asked.

herisson
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painfulenglish
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    "Do* you want to join us?"* is often used when the speaker is making an offer, where that offer might be unexpected by the addressee. While, "Did* you want to join us?"* could be the speaker acknowledging that the addressee wants to join in with the group--it is not necessarily an offer by the speaker. For the situation that you are describing, perhaps better would be: "Would you like to come and join us?", or "Please, do come and join us?", etc. – F.E. Jul 27 '14 at 17:03
  • @F.E.: I cannot imagine any real-life context where the intended audience would not realise whether an offer was in fact being made, so there would be no need to adopt "better" phrasing to avoid ambiguity. – FumbleFingers Jul 27 '14 at 18:30

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