I have always wondered whether "this morning" is present or past. Ofcourse I searched for the right tense and come across "have seen" is being used more.
So grammatically present perfect is appropriate but isn't "this morning" a completed period in the past ?
We ask "Have you had breakfast(morning) ?" when we are still in the morning
and ask "Did you have breakfast(morning) ?" after the morning time was over i.e., in the afternoon/evening.
So according to this, Isn't "I saw her this morning" (assuming I told this to my friend in the evening of the same day) the correct grammatical way to say ?
Best Answer
You are correct. I would usually use the present perfect here only during that same morning, just as you stated: "I have seen her"—completed action, perfect—"this morning"—within a timeframe that's still occurring, present.
In what context are you finding the present perfect here? I suppose it might be a dialect thing.