Learn English – “Did you have…” or “Have you had…”

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I know that this question was asked before and I read the other posts but I'm still which one to use. I was just talking with a friend and I asked, "Have you had a tiring day?"… I thought I was right because I read somewhere that I should use "Have you had" when addressing something recently done, but then I googled the two sentences and "did you have" got a lot more of entries.

Ps. I asked that question 'cause she said, "Half of my body is sleeping".

Best Answer

As with questions of verbal aspect generally, in many contexts both are perfectly good. "Have you had a tiring day" is regarding the day as continuing into the present - it might actually not have finished yet, or the tiring part may be over. "Did you have a tiring day" does imply that the day (or at least, the tiring part of it) is over.

There is also a question of variety of English: I believe we are somewhat more likely to use the perfect in this sort of case in British English than they are in American.