When we speak, you could say or hear:
- Did you hear the news? /did iú híer/
- Have you heard the news? /hav iú heerd/
The choice of tense will depend in which chunk of time of the day the person feels in and when this person heard the news. In 1. it’s like the person heard the news in the morning and now it’s the afternoon or later. In 2. it’s likely the person is thinking of a longer chunk of time, like “today.”
Can you be as free as this when you are writing an article? Probably not. Here is the beginning of a writing I’m just marking:
Adults Only Hotels
According to the type of guest, there exist different types of hotels. Some of them are gay-n-lesbian-friendly, nudist or for singles. But have you heard* about (the) hotels called Adults Only?
*”did you hear” is impossible because as an article writer posing a topic why should you be thinking of a particular moment in the past of that person? You need to use the present perfect because it’s a case of “the person might have experienced that in the past, and the experience is still open in the present.” (Also, when you publish an article it can be read at any time, so you cannot have a specific time in the past in your head!)
By the way, adults only hotels in regular English should have been adult-only hotels. It’s like a women’s-only meeting. The use of the less likely form has spread! (compare with cases here, Modifiers). As you know, language is the most irregular science of all! 😉 ❤
Plans & What We Did In Class 