Had you done? vs Have you done? Which is correct in my case? A friend tells me that he went somewhere/did something yesterday. I want to know whether he went there for the first time or not. I don't q

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Olga

Had you done? vs Have you done? Which is correct in my case? A friend tells me that he went somewhere/did something yesterday. I want to know whether he went there for the first time or not. I don't quite understand which tense I should use. My current choice is this: "Had you gone there (done that) before or was it your first time yesterday?" (does that sound natural, by the way?) Generally, I would go with "Have you done it before?", but that would imply "before now", right? However, in this case with my friend I'm asking him about something that happened before yesterday (not before now). So should I say then "Had you done it before" meaning "before yesterday"?

20 apr 2019 15:58

Risposte · 8

in this case both answers are correct

20 aprile 2019

Hi Olga, And yes, you are correct. If he has already done it, and you wish to ask whether it were his first time or he had done it before that, you would use "had". Note: Instead of saying "gone", I would say "been"; so, "had you been there before, or was it your first time?" And "have" you would use if you are asking about before the present. So, "have you been there before?" you would aks if your friend is yet to go, and you wish to know whether he has been there in the past.

20 aprile 2019

In the context you give, the past perfect is good, though (almost) nobody will quibble about "have you done it before?" in conversation or in informal use. By the way, I'd caution against using the phrase "your first time" - you could change this to "the first time", or just leave it at " had you done it before?"

21 aprile 2019

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