<Did you understand> <Have you understood> what I just said?

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

I want to know if the person I'm talking to has grasped the point of what I said just a few seconds ago. I'm pretty sure "Do you understand what I just said?" works in English, but here it's the present tense and it talks about the state "understand" while I want to ask about the action. Do you think either of these below would work in such a situation?

• Did you understand what I just said? (I'm not sure if this would work to talk about the action, not the state)
• Have you understood what I just said? (I hope, unless this doesn't work in English in this context, it's clear the point is in the *action*)

Maybe there are some other possible options? Thank you

 

[teechar]

Let's clarify something first: "understand" is not an action verb. Are you okay with that?

 

[jutfrank]

The verb 'understand' is classed as stative, but it has nuanced semantic properties, and different senses.

Did you understand what I just said?

Given the context of the sentence, I most readily imagine it means something synonymous with 'correctly interpret'. Perhaps the speaker of this sentence had just uttered something in a foreign language and is now enquiring whether the listener is able to translate it into English. Yes, the past tense suggests that something 'happened' in the past but it wasn't an action exactly. It's closer to a perception verb, in my opinion, where the perception (the information being registered in the mind) happens at a point in time.

What did you want the sentence to mean?

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

Let's clarify something first: "understand" is not an action verb. Are you okay with that?

Reads a bit rude. I don't know if you meant that and if you did, why?
Yes, I'm okay with that. English is the way it is and I'm here to learn.

What did you want the sentence to mean?

Thanks a lot for the help. In order to explain what I wanted the sentence to mean, I'm going to have to use different words since "understand", as I now suspect, might not work the way I want it to

I have now worked it through a translator and it's given me these:

• Did you get what I said?
• Did you realize what I said?
• Did you catch what I said?
• Did you take what I said?
  and even this:
• Did you understand what I said?

 

[5jj]

Reads a bit rude.

There was nothing rude about teechar's words.

 

[jutfrank]

Thanks a lot for the help. In order to explain what I wanted the sentence to mean, I'm going to have to use different words since "understand", as I now suspect, might not work the way I want it to

It would help explain what you mean if you give us more context or tell us the exact situation. Who's speaking to whom? What kind of understanding are you talking about?

 

[teechar]

Reads a bit rude.

Not at all. I was simply trying to confirm that you accept the answer.

I don't know if you meant that

Nope!

Yes, I'm okay with that. English is the way it is and I'm here to learn.

 

[GhotiO |fɪʃ|]

It would help explain what you mean if you give us more context or tell us the exact situation.

OK : )

Who's speaking to whom?

Let's say it's two friends talking to one another about something. At one point, one of them has tried to express his thoughts in a bit complicated way, and now wants to know if his friend <...> what he said.

What kind of understanding are you talking about?

I'm sorry, I don't understand the question. It's like "understand", but instead of the state of understanding, you're talking about the moment of the beginning of this state (I sense it as an action).

Hmm... I know how to explain this!!!
I once heard this in a movie:

• I (just) remembered I have an important business call to make.

The verb 'remember' is also, as far as I'm concerned, a state one, and yet here it seems to be used in the "action" way.
This sentence doesn't mean that I remembered it a short while ago and have now forgotten, does it? If not, as I suspect, then it's clearly used in the action way, even though the verb is a state one. The confusion, I believe, stems from the fact that for some reason English uses the same verb in these two different cases: it is still the same verb 'remember', but nonetheless in this sentence it is used to denote the action, not the state, isn't it?

Let's clarify something first: "understand" is not an action verb. Are you okay with that?

By the way, that's why I started this thread. I knew that the verb 'understand' is stative, but I thought it could be used in two ways, similar to 'remember' (the example sentence above).

 

[jutfrank]

Let's say it's two friends talking to one another about something. At one point, one of them has tried to express his thoughts in a bit complicated way, and now wants to know if his friend <...> what he said.

From this meagre context, I can't see a reason to use a past tense. When do you mean when you say 'at one point'? I think you just mean Do you understand what I'm saying?

I do understand why you're comparing 'understand' to 'remember' but I think you should consider and ask about these two verbs separately.