"Did you decide? "or" Have you decided?" (2025)

In this case, it makes no difference. "Have you decided?" seems more natural.

Why? ... Just because it does.

cmkitty said:

I think maybe I should say "Have you decided?" since although the action "decide" happened in the past, but it has effect on the present (decided which book to read". If you think " Did you decide?" is acceptable, why? Thanks a lot!

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You seem to be grossly misled by the erroneous assumption that there is always some dictum regarding the English language (which has no official arbiter) as to why something is or is not used.

"Did you decide" is acceptable because it is, i.e. it is common, natural and idiomatic English.

I would say "Have you decided?"

The alternative "Did you decide?" is not wrong, but the use of the simple past there sounds a bit odd to me as a BE speaker, when referring to an action which has taken place over the last five minutes or so and has only just been completed.

I think cmkitty makes a valid point in post 3. A "relevance to the present" argument does apply in some contexts.

There can also be a difference between AE and BE in this kind of context.

"Typical time expressions used with the present perfect in British English but often used with the past simple in American English are 'already', 'just', 'yet'.

• I haven't done it yet. (UK)
• I didn't do it yet. (US)
• I've just done it. (UK)
• I just did it. (US)
  I've already done it. (UK)
• I already did it. (US)" (source: englishgrammarsecrets.com)

Although in the OP's sentence there is no explicit adverb ("already", "just" or "yet"), "yet" can be inferred.

I'm surprised that people should say of two valid formulae which mean different things that one is better than another.

All depends on what you wish to say:

Did you decide? Was there a moment when you decided?

Have you decided? Has the decision been taken? Is taking the decision in your bank of past experiences?

Of course you cannot have decided if you didn't decide at some moment, but that's not the point. The different tenses mean you are asking different questions.

I ought, perhaps, to mention that I speak BE, and American English often uses these tenses rather differently from BE. That can mean that BE and AE speakers seem to contradict each other in questions like this.

Just an observation of mine...

Doesn't "Have you decided" bear the shadow of possibility of multiple acts of deciding? Like in

Have you bought clothes = Have you been buying (a series of actions)
Did you buy = one time (one action)

Ivan_I said:

Just an observation of mine...

Doesn't "Have you decided" bear the shadow of possibility of multiple acts of deciding? Like in

Have you bought clothes = Have you been buying (a series of actions)
Did you buy = one time (one action)

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No, sorry

sdgraham said:

No, sorry

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Don't you apologize to me! )))
I presented my assumption basing it on this thread "Where did you buy it?" vs. "Where have you bought it?"
I don't claim that I couldn't have misunderstood it. But here are the words which made me think what I said. POST 8 by parla

"If you wanted to know about the person's experience over a period of time and continuing to the present, you might ask, "Where have you bought records?"

No?