Question
Updated on
24 Jun 2015
- Korean
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English (US)
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German
Question about English (US)
What is the difference between "why didn't you contact me?" and "why haven't you contact me?" ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between "why didn't you contact me?" and "why haven't you contact me?" ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
I know the difference between past and present perfect tense but for those sentences I think there isn't thant much differences isn't it?
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- English (US)
Your second sentence is present perfect, so it needs to be Why haven't you contacted me?
The meanings are pretty much the same, but
Why didn't you contact me? implies why didn't you contact me in a set past, like why didn't you contact me last week? (Because it is past tense)
Why haven't you contacted me? implies why haven't you contacted me last week and up to this moment? (Because it's present perfect.)
But although there is a difference in grammar, many English speakers will use the first phrase to mean the second, too. So although there is a small difference, it may not seem so to those learning English.
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