I just got home and my friend asks: What's the difference between saying: Have you

[B45]

I just got home and my friend asks:

What's the difference between saying:

Have you had dinner?

VS

Did you have dinner?

 

[Raymott]

There's usually no difference in meaning.
Non-Americans would generally say 1, and Americans might say 2.

There are other less common contexts in which 2 would be better.

 

[B45]

What do you mean by Non-Americans would generally say 1? Like people from Britain or other English speaking Europe countries?

What would an American use?

 

[Raymott]

By non-American, I mean British, Australian, New Zealander, and maybe other native English-speaking countries. With America, I'd generally include Canada, which is strictly an American country. Other native English-speaking countries that don't even show up on maps are listed below. Whether the Caribbean Islands use American constructs over British ones, I don't know.

The reason I sometimes use "non-American", is because I am Australian and I primarily mean "Britain, Australia and New Zealand", and I prefer not to use the fiction (albeit useful at times) that English can be divided into BrE and AmE.

The Anglosphere: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglosphere

"English is also the primary language in the island states and territories of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guam, Guernsey, Guyana, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Montserrat, Nauru, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-speaking_world

 

[SoothingDave]

What do you mean by Non-Americans would generally say 1? Like people from Britain or other English speaking Europe countries?

What would an American use?

As Raymott said, Americans are in general much more likely to phrase questions in the "did you" form than the "have you."

 

[Rover_KE]

I'd like to emphasise Raymott's comment in post #2:

'There's usually no difference in meaning.'

I'd go further and say 'There's no difference in meaning'.

 

[Raymott]

I'd like to emphasise Raymott's comment in post #2:
'There's usually no difference in meaning.'
I'd go further and say 'There's no difference in meaning'.

Husband is about to go back to work after lunch. Wife says "I'm not feeling well. I don't think I'll eat dinner tonight. Maybe you could pick up something for yourself on the way home."
Husband does that, comes home late, and says, "Did you eat dinner?" ie. "Did you decide to eat dinner after all?" not "Have you eaten dinner [already]?"
One could quibble over whether this is a difference in meaning, or of connotation, or of emphasis, or something else. I'm calling it a difference in meaning.