simple past and present perfect

1. Can you explain to me the differences between the pair of the sentences below:
Do you ever visit my showroom?
Have you ever visited my showroom?

You never go out with me.
You have never gone out with me.

I have just heard the news.
I just heard the news.

2. Can I replace the underlined words by the red ones ?
Mrs. Brown sometimes knits but she isn’t knitting tonight. doesn’t knit
Why are you putting on your coat? do you put

Where have you been? ~ I have been shopping in Oxford Street.
Where were you? ~ was shopping



3. Can you explain to me the grammatical structures which are underlined in the following conversation?
A: You are looking very thoughtful. What are you thinking about?
B: I am thinking about my retirement.
A: But you are only 25. You are only just starting your career. (why don’t we use “you have only started” instead of?)
B: I know; but I am reading an article which says that a sensible man starts thinking about retirement at 25. (the action “reading” finished, didn’t it? So, why did they use present progressive?)

That's all.
Thank you for your help,
Dell

[Tdol]

1. Can you explain to me the differences between the pair of the sentences below:

• Do you ever visit my showroom?
  Have you ever visited my showroom?
  
  You never go out with me.
  You have never gone out with me

.

Here, the present perfect refers to a single occasion at any time in the past, while the present simple refers to a repeated action.

Do you ever visit my showroom? Yes, I go there every couple of months
Have you ever visited my showroom? Yes, I visited it least year

• I have just heard the news.
  I just heard the news.

There's not much difference here. The first would be common in British English.

2. Can I replace the underlined words by the red ones ?
Mrs. Brown sometimes knits but she isn’t knitting tonight. doesn’t knit

No, you can't- tonight is a single occasion, not a habit.
Why are you putting on your coat? do you put

Where have you been? ~ I have been shopping in Oxford Street.
Where were you? ~ was shopping
Yes, you can.



3. Can you explain to me the grammatical structures which are underlined in the following conversation?
A: You are looking very thoughtful. What are you thinking about?
B: I am thinking about my retirement.
A: But you are only 25. You are only just starting your career. (why don’t we use “you have only started” instead of?)

You could use the perfect here- the idea behing the present continuous is to emphasise the person's youth.

B: I know; but I am reading an article which says that a sensible man starts thinking about retirement at 25. (the action “reading” finished, didn’t it? So, why did they use present progressive?)

We can say 'I'm reading a book about...' when we are not reading at the moment, but the book is unfinished. If the person has finished reading for the moment but not finished the article, then we can use the present continuous. However, unless it's avery long article, it does sound a bit strange.

[RonBee]

Re:

• You never go out with me.
  You have never gone out with me.

The first one seems like an accusation. The second looks like it's a simple statement of fact (although it does, offhand, seem like an odd thing to say to somebody).

:)