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I'm wondering: I was always taught at school that when using "since", you always have to use Present Perfect (BrE), e.g.

Since when have you played chess?

But is

Since when did you play chess?

acceptable in AmE? Which option would the AmE speakers rather use?

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    Those don’t sound very normal — at all. “How long have you been playing chess?” or “When did you start playing chess?” is what people would actually say. Since is simply not a good starting-word for a question in English these days.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 16:57
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    @tchrist: in the Northeast, if you see somebody playing chess and are quite surprised because you hadn't realized that he played, "Since when did you play chess?" is a perfectly normal (although definitely informal and slightly rude) remark.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 16:59
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    I agree with @tchrist, but will complicate it further; in AmE, it's not uncommon to use since when with the present tense to indicate time: Since when do you play chess? To which the answer (with since) would be "I've been playing since college" or (without since) "I've been playing for about 5 years." It expresses surprise and is a bit presumptious, but not at all uncommon.
    – anongoodnurse
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 17:02
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    The OP's examples sound normal to me. They would be appropriate when the speaker is surprised to discover that the addressee actually does play chess. The first version with present-perfect would be the "cleaner" sounding version, but the second version could be heard in an informal setting among friends. (Me, an AmE speaker.) And I've actually heard stuff like that.
    – F.E.
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 17:53
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    In BrE, we would commonly say "since when DO you play chess?" if surprised to see someone playing chess, and we would say "since when HAVE you playED chess" if it were a genuine question.
    – Karl
    Commented Aug 4, 2014 at 20:02

1 Answer 1

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It generally means "I did not realize you ever played chess". As 'Since when do you paint?" means that I am dubious that you paint.

So it happens, but it is a strange idiom and not normal usage that follows the standard definitions.

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