student asking question

Why is the present tense "You ever think..." used here? Isn't it grammatically correct to use the perfect tense "Have you ever thought..."?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

This is a great question! It is more proper to say “do you ever think about/have you ever thought about,” but “you ever think” is perfectly acceptable as a casual expression. It’s common to shorten it this way in informal contexts. Ex: You ever think about where you’ll be in ten years? Ex: Do you ever think about your childhood?

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