Learn English – Did you surprise? vs Have you surprised

grammaticality-in-contextinterrogativespast-simplequestions

I'm going to meet one of my friend next week. I want to ask about her feeling when her son announced that he will get married with a foreign girl.
(Maybe her son announced 1 month ago, I want to ask her feeling right at that moment)

  • Did you surprise?
  • Have you surprised?

Which one should I use? What is the difference between these two questions?
Thank you!

Best Answer

Honestly speaking, neither one sounds particularly right. After all, it wasn't her who made somebody surprised. On the contrary, it was her son's decision to marry a foreign woman that surprised her. In other words, she was not the source of her surprise. The source of her surprise was her son's decision to get married. So, I would recommend you use this sentence instead:

Did it surprise you?

or a more verbose version:

Did your son's decision to marry a foreign woman surprise you?

Notice that I'm using the simple past tense here. That's because the action you're speaking about took place in the past and is not connected to the present. Therefore, this is not a present perfect situation.