Re: present perfect vs. past simple I'd say that for this particular situation, there is a greater tendency for the use of the present perfect for BrE and a greater tendency for NaE to use the past simple. But that doesn't preclude one or the other for either "dialect".
Certainly, for NaE, when a speaker feels that the event has some importance/current relevance, the present perfect could see use.
I think that the operative word is "usually". A exact phrase google, UK pages only, gives us this:
Results 1 - 10 of about 26,300 for "already done it".
Results 1 - 10 of about 4,840 for "already did it".
Perhaps because the words just and already hint at some degree of importance/current relevance, there is a greater tendency for BrE speakers to favor the PP.
For NaE, this is a hard thing to determine because, short of reviewing every such collocation to see how "important" the situation was, we still come up against the fact that not all view situations alike and the ultimate choice, obviously, is the speaker's. Only that person can decide what to choose, the PP or the PS because what is being expressed are the thoughts of that speaker.
Last edited by riverkid; 06-Apr-2008 at 22:03.
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