Learn English – Do you ever vs have you ever

questions

What's the best question for these answers?

  1. No, he never gets up early.

    • Has he ever got up early?
      or
    • Does he ever get up early?
  2. Yes, they often go to bed after midnight.

    • Have they ever?
      or
    • Do they ever?
  3. No, I never play games online.

    • Have you ever?
      or
    • Do you ever?

Best Answer

  • I'd say that it's not all that common with your specific sentence, Reza. That's because of verb choice and the specific meaning. When we use 'do/does' in this fashion it holds a meaning of routinely/habitually.

"Seeing one film" does not seem to hold a routine/habitual meaning so it does sound a wee bit strange.

For events that are more habitual in nature, then we often use "Do you ever ...?".

Do you ever go to the movies?

Do you ever ski at Aspen?

Do you ever snowboard/waterski/etc?

The meaning for "have you ever ..." is "have you had such and such a life experience" and for "do you ever ...", the meaning is, "is this part of the routine in your life?"

  • Below is a dialogue between a lawyer and a client. The lawyer uses "Did you" because she is looking for a specific date.

Sam: Did you ever see this film? Pat: Yeah. Sam: When was that?

Perfect tenses refer to the act. The action is important. Below is a dialogue between two friends who are picking out a DVD at the video store.

Sam: Have you ever seen this film? Pat: Yeah. Sam: Was it good?

Note that, for some speakers there isn't a difference between "Did you" and "Have you". They use them interchangeably. For example, 

Ex: Have you eaten? Ex: Did you eat? 

To me, however, "Have you eaten?" means, I want to know if you ate, and not when you ate. And "Did you eat?" means, I want to know when you ate:

Hope that helps. 

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