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This is part of a conversation between me and one of my friends I was flirting with:

Me: I didn't know that I was starving until I tasted you.
She: You haven't.

Shouldn't there be didn't instead of haven't because I had written tasted not have tasted.

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    Yes, but she says "you haven't" or ("you didn't")...what? You didn't know that you were starving? Or you haven't tasted her? The answer depends on the context. – stangdon May 23 '17 at 18:05
  • She said haven't . But i think there should've been didn't. Because i had said i didnt know that i was starving until I tasted her not have tasted her 😑 – user55625 May 23 '17 at 18:08
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    haven't is fine. She's saying, up to this moment, you have never done so. Some might think you're lucky she didn't say, "You never will." – Tᴚoɯɐuo May 23 '17 at 18:09
  • This conversation is very informal so it shouldn't be expected to conform to the precise rules of "proper" English. My native speaker ear says that "You haven't" is more appropriate than "You didn't" in context, but I don't have a good explanation for why, which is why this is a comment rather than an answer. – zwol May 23 '17 at 18:11
  • "You didn't" would be slightly ambiguous: it might read as a reaffirmation that "you didn't know". I find "you haven't" is clearer and more natural. – rjpond Oct 8 '17 at 12:50
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In your conversation

Me: I didn't know that I was starving until I tasted you.
She: You haven't.

"She" is saying you haven't tasted her, yet.

Your sentence is ambiguous and possibly very flirty in a very sexual way since you may be implying you've been very intimate with her and she is saying you have not been that intimate with her.

She could also have said

You didn't

which in this context would mean "You did not taste her".

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Given the context of a flirty conversation, "haven't" is entirely appropriate and, to some extent, clever since it changes the nuance of her response. I'm not certain what you mean by "taste", since, in that context, the word can be more or less suggestive. But it's also not important.

There are two responses to your innuendo:

You didn't taste me

You haven't tasted me

The first is fairly literal, and actually a bit cold in that it says "that event didn't happen". However the second is the opposite -- it implies that while the event didn't happen, it could still happen -- as in "You haven't tasted me ... yet".

So you can interpret that response as a warm invitation to continue flirting, rather than a less enticing, more straightforward statement of fact. The response is not a direct reply, but rather changes the implication of the sentence by adding additional, unspoken suggestion.

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  • haven't is silent with respect to the future. Its terminus is the present. – Tᴚoɯɐuo May 23 '17 at 18:13
  • @Tᴚoɯɐuo yes, unless you add "yet". In her response, the "yet" is implied. – Andrew May 23 '17 at 18:16
  • In her answer, yet is not implied. It's just wishful thinking, perhaps because she didn't add "and you won't". The present perfect implies nothing about the future. – Tᴚoɯɐuo May 23 '17 at 18:17
  • That makes no sense. Why would she change from "didn't" to "haven't" unless she meant to imply something by it? In any case it's not a relevant argument since whether or not she meant to imply "yet" it's still a possible interpretation of her response. We don't have to know what was actually on her mind to discuss the language involved. – Andrew May 23 '17 at 18:21
  • There is nothing about the present perfect which supports the inferences you're drawing, or which stands in their way. As I said, the PP is silent with respect to the future. She's simply saying "You've never tasted me". He may say he did, or may think he did, but he did not and he has not. The present perfect is more extensive than a simple "did not". The pres. perf. extends up to the present moment, whereas a simple past refers to a specific occasion in the past. – Tᴚoɯɐuo May 23 '17 at 18:29
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He 'I didn't know that I was starving til I tasted you' She 'you haven't.'

She means:

  • "You haven't even begun to taste me yet! You have no clue who I really am! You think I am a delicious spoonful of hazelnut chocolate gelato on the end of your spoon - but I am soooo much more!

  • I am the ocean! I am love! I am consciousness! I am intuition! I am everything you ever dreamed or have yet to dream! I am the shoulder that a friend cries on! I am dancing all night in a red silk dress under the stars! I am the blue-eyed child you have yet to see birthed!

  • I am... woman!"

I hope that answers your question.

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