simple past - past perfect continuous interrogativedifferences

Hi all. I'm kinda ashamed to make such a question since I'm half American and half Italian, it took me lot of time to understand how to use in the affermative form the simple past or perfect past continuous (I think I understood the difference).
But how to use them in the interrogative form, I mean egg:
-Affermative: "I have seen this movie three times already this week" (past perfect continuos)
-Affermative: "I saw this movie last night" (simple past).
The problem is with the interrogative:
-Interrogative: "Did you see this movie already?" or should I say: "Have you seen this movie already?"
-Interrogative: "Did you see this movie already?" (simple past).
They say that you use did you + verb in American and have you + verb in English.
so let's guess I want to speak American there isn't difference even if the interrogative form is of the past perfect continuous? I use the interrogative form like that of the simple pas?
I'm glad to receive a question, thanks to all for the support.

[Coffa]

Originally Posted by Unregistered9996

Hi all. I'm kinda ashamed to make such a question since I'm half American and half Italian, it took me lot of time to understand how to use in the affermative form the simple past or perfect past continuous (I think I understood the difference).
But how to use them in the interrogative form, I mean egg:
-Affermative: "I have seen this movie three times already this week" (past perfect continuos)
-Affermative: "I saw this movie last night" (simple past).
The problem is with the interrogative:
-Interrogative: "Did you see this movie already?" or should I say: "Have you seen this movie already?"
-Interrogative: "Did you see this movie already?" (simple past).
They say that you use did you + verb in American and have you + verb in English.
so let's guess I want to speak American there isn't difference even if the interrogative form is of the past perfect continuous? I use the interrogative form like that of the simple pas?
I'm glad to receive a question, thanks to all for the support.

OK. There are some problems with your understanding of tenses here:

1) "I have seen this movie..." - PRESENT perfect
2) "I have been seeing this movie..." - Present perfect continuous
3) "I had seen this movie..." - Past perfect (pluperfect)
4) "I had been seeing this movie..." - Past perfect continuous
5) "I saw this movie..." - Past simple (imperfect)
6) "I did see this movie..." - Past simple (imperfect)
7) "I was seeing this movie..." - Past simple continuous

There are no tense differences between the affirmative and interrogative forms, and there are no tense differences between BrE and AmE.

The interrogative inverts the subject (or subject pronoun) in all cases, except that 5) cannot be used in the interrogative form.

Your question becomes whether simple past is more common in AmE than the present perfect in BrE when asking "Have you seen this movie already?"

My (BrE) answer is that "Did you see this movie already?" is grammatically wrong, because it demands the present perfect tense. Others will disagree...

[Chris87]

Hi, I'm always Unregistered9996, thank you for asnwering and sorry about the title, I wrote it wrong 'cause I had in my mind that "continuous" word.

Anyways, in short you say that using a Simple Past interrogative form for a Past Perfect is wrong, so I would like to insert some example to see if I got it well:

(Past Perfect) - Affermative: "My car is still broke 'cause I have hitted it badly."
(Past Perfect) - Interrogative: "Have you hitted you car?"

(Simple Past) - Affermative: "I saw my friend."
(Simple Past) - Interrogative: "Did you see your friend?"

If I had used another interrogative form for the Past Perfect the sentence would have been wrong, right? The fact is that sometime I get confused 'cause the Past Perfect is used for things happened in the past but that have still real effects on the present.

So the affermative sentence is easy since the car is still broke so is easy to know that I need to use the Past Perfect, but in the interrogative the friend just asks if he hitted the car in a precise moment of the past, so my mind would write "Did you hit your car?".

I hope you can give me a explanation to know how to understand this difference, thank you =).

[moniza]

Hi!
"My car is still broke 'cause I have hitted it badly."
I am confused,
Which one is correct?
1. "My car is still broke 'cause I have hitted it badly." or 2. "My car is still broken 'cause I have hit it badly"

[astrojunkee]

used past participle after have, so "hitted" is correct.

[aggelos]

The only correct form possible is hit, as it is an irregular verb and its three principal parts are all the same: hit-hit-hit.

As for 'broke' referring to a car, although some people say it, I think it would be (more) correct to say 'broken'. As far as I know, only people can be broke (= without any money).

In the sentence "My car is still broke(n)...", the use of still distances the recentness of the event, so I believe there should follow a past tense: "...because I hit it badly"; hitting the car is no news any more.

And yes, Americans do tend to use the past tense more often in cases where the British would normally use a present perfect.