I'm wondering what the semantic difference is between these sentences:
What have you expected?
and
What did you expect?
In both questions we are talking about the past, and both are translated into my native language identically.
Learn English – Semantic difference: “What have you expected?” vs. “What did you expect?”
differencemeaningpast-perfectpast-simplepast-tense
Related Topic
- Learn English – “Has / have gone” vs “did go” without any additional information
- Learn English – Did you surprise? vs Have you surprised
- Learn English – “Have you known” or “Did you know”
- Learn English – Difference between “Why did she…” and “Why would she…”
- Learn English – “Did you already…?” and “Have you already…?”
- The difference between “first thing” and “first things first”
Best Answer
The choice of tense here is somewhat restricted by the meaning of expect, which means to anticipate that something will happen. When we expect something, we believe it will happen; we await it.
When that which we expect to happen turns out to happen or to not happen, we no longer have the expectation. The expectation is abandoned either because now we know otherwise, or because what we expected to happen has indeed happened. When it has rained cats and dogs and our shoes are already ruined, we cannot expect them to get ruined. We cannot expect the 4PM train to be late if it is 4PM and the train has already arrived on time.
If we are speaking of an expectation as either an ongoing state of mind or as an abandoned state of mind, we do not use the present perfect with expect . If the expectation is abandoned, it is a thing of the past.
What did you expect?
What were you expecting?
If the expectation is ongoing, it is a thing of the present.
What do you expect?
What are you expecting?
Only when we wish to speak of the expectation as one that may be in transition from held belief to abandoned belief does expect hook up with the present perfect, though even then the two are awkward dancing partners.
What have you been expecting?
What have you expected?
What have you been believing?
What have you believed?
The present perfect could also be used to mean "things that I have believed over the course of my lifetime which I no longer believe, but I own to having believed them".
Have you expected Santa Claus to come down the chimney?
Have you expected the Tooth Fairy to leave money under your pillow?
Have you expected business partners to be honest and above-board?