Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

[ROFTOK]

1 When we were at school you smoked. Ten years has passed. Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

2 You told me that you quit smoking recently. But you smell of cigarettes. Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

3 You told me that you quit smoking recently. But you smell of cigarettes. Do you smoke again now? or Are you smoking again now?

 

[5jj]

Please frame a question in future rather than merely posting the alternatives, Roftok.

The problem is that few of the possibilities are really natural:

1. More natural: You smoked/used to smoke when we were at school. Do you still smoke? The speaker is unlikely to mention the time lapse - both people know it.

2/3. You told me that you quit smoking recently. But you smell of cigarettes. Have you started again? Are you smoking again?

 

[ROFTOK]

1. More natural: You smoked/used to smoke when we were at school. Do you still smoke? The speaker is unlikely to mention the time lapse - both people know it.

But "still" is not "now", I want to sort the things out with "now". I think it's OK to say "Do you smoke these days?" Right?

2 What if it goes like this:

When we were at school you smoked. Then you quit. Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

 

[5jj]

But "still" is not "now", I want to sort the things out with "now". I think it's OK to say "Do you smoke these days?" Right?

Still: used for saying that a situation continues to exist up to and including a particular time, especially when this seems surprising

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That seems appropriate to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

1 When we were at school, you smoked. Ten years has have passed.

2 You told me that you [have/had] quit smoking recently no full stop here but you smell of cigarettes.

3 You told me that you [have/had] quit smoking recently no full stop here but you smell of cigarettes.

 

[5jj]

Ten years has have passed.

I differ from emsr2d2 in that I don't think the original is wrong. Ten years is a period of time, and can be seen as singular.

However, we can also see ten years as a large number of years and use the plural verb.

 

[ROFTOK]

Well, somehow you ignored this:

2 What if it goes like this:

When we were at school you smoked. Then you quit. Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, somehow you ignored this:

2. What if it goes like this?

When we were at school you smoked. Then you quit. Do you smoke now? or Are you smoking now?

I didn't ignore them. I intentionally removed the parts in bold because 5jj had already given you very helpful responses. I had nothing to add to those. I simply wanted to indicate the errors in the rest of your post.

 

[ROFTOK]

I didn't ignore them. I intentionally removed the parts in bold because 5jj had already given you very helpful responses. I had nothing to add to those. I simply wanted to indicate the errors in the rest of your post.

Why them? It is only one example which hasn't been explained.