16

What is the difference between

Did you watch this movie?

and

Have you watched this movie?

3 Answers 3

28

The two common wordings are did you watch and have you seen.

Did you watch generally takes a time frame or some other constraint. For example:

Did you watch Avengers last night?

Did you watch Tron with Billy last week?

Did you watch Jurassic Park before Jurassic Park II came out?

In contrast, have you seen asks if you have ever watched the given movie, at any point.

Have you seen Fright Night?

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  • 1
    This ignores an actual phrase that the OP asks about. Have you watched this movie? is a perfectly good and useful sentence. Maybe this was the style of answer in 2013,but not anymore.
    – GoDucks
    Feb 4, 2016 at 14:19
4

In addition to the subtle difference between the tenses, usage in casual speech is a matter of style. Usage of perfect tenses is more common in England than in the US, and may be more common in certain areas or age groups than in others.

A nice summary can be found here.

1
  • It's good practice to include the important portions of linked content in an answer, as if the linked website goes down the information will be lost.
    – LMS
    Dec 15, 2016 at 20:12
-2

Have you seen this movie...indicates - Have is in this time frame Did you see that movie....indicates - Did was in that past time frame

Using Have means you are asking a question for something you want. Time, money, watched and so on.

Using Did is a formal question where you need just a good answer.

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