3 ms·

Y'all is efficient. It is just one syllable. Asking the question, "Y'all eat?" Is twice as fast compared to, "Did you all eat?" Of course, I use it because I'm

Y'all is efficient. It is just one syllable. Asking the question, "Y'all eat?" Is twice as fast compared to, "Did you all eat?" Of course, I use it because I'm from the south eastern US, not because it's fast.

globnomulous 2y ago
And to me this just raises the question I often ask myself: whether I'm the only person born in the US in the past fifty years who continues to use the perfect tense and distinguish semantically between it and the simple past. I say "did you eat?" when I want to know whether you ate at a specific, single point in time in the past (and you and I both know which one I mean) -- and you no longer have the opportunity or that time has passed. I say "Have you eaten?" When I want to know whether you've eaten anything yet. You may still have the opportunity. I may even be suggesting that we eat together. My partner regularly asks me things like, "did we watch that movie?" and for a split second I will have no idea what the devil she's talking about. Am I supposed to know the exact point in time that she's referring to? Is there a reason why to opportunity to watch it has, implicitly, passed? No, we just don't speak the same language. "Did you do the laundry?" Had we scheduled it? Has the opportunity to do laundry passed? "Did you make coffee?" No, and rejoice, my love, as the time of making coffee is still upon us. "Did you eat lunch yet?" ...excuse me? Are you a five-dimensional being?
- kayodelycaon 2y ago
  I don’t think anyone in the past used spoken language with the precision you’re describing. English isn’t a programming language. All of the questions you’re asked are abstractions of a different question or a series of questions. Many of them have multiple meanings and you pick the most likely set based on context.
  - globnomulous 2y ago
    I was being a bit tongue in cheek, and my partner does tell me she has never met anyone more literal or rigid. So I take your point -- and it's fair. That being said, many in the UK do use the simple past and perfect exactly as I've described. Using the simple past where the perfect is expected is, to their ears, unmistakably incorrect, whereas plenty of native speakers in the US draw no distinction whatsoever.

globnomulous 2y ago

And to me this just raises the question I often ask myself: whether I'm the only person born in the US in the past fifty years who continues to use the perfect tense and distinguish semantically between it and the simple past. I say "did you eat?" when I want to know whether you ate at a specific, single point in time in the past (and you and I both know which one I mean) -- and you no longer have the opportunity or that time has passed. I say "Have you eaten?" When I want to know whether you've eaten anything yet. You may still have the opportunity. I may even be suggesting that we eat together. My partner regularly asks me things like, "did we watch that movie?" and for a split second I will have no idea what the devil she's talking about. Am I supposed to know the exact point in time that she's referring to? Is there a reason why to opportunity to watch it has, implicitly, passed? No, we just don't speak the same language. "Did you do the laundry?" Had we scheduled it? Has the opportunity to do laundry passed? "Did you make coffee?" No, and rejoice, my love, as the time of making coffee is still upon us. "Did you eat lunch yet?" ...excuse me? Are you a five-dimensional being?

kayodelycaon 2y ago
I don’t think anyone in the past used spoken language with the precision you’re describing. English isn’t a programming language. All of the questions you’re asked are abstractions of a different question or a series of questions. Many of them have multiple meanings and you pick the most likely set based on context.
- globnomulous 2y ago
  I was being a bit tongue in cheek, and my partner does tell me she has never met anyone more literal or rigid. So I take your point -- and it's fair. That being said, many in the UK do use the simple past and perfect exactly as I've described. Using the simple past where the perfect is expected is, to their ears, unmistakably incorrect, whereas plenty of native speakers in the US draw no distinction whatsoever.