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Vkr6078 Posted 11 years ago
Grammar

This Morning

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 ?
  

Top answer

vkr6078 I have always wondered whether "this morning" is present or past. It's not a verb, so it has no tense. It's a noun phrase whose referent is the current morning, the time period of this day until 12 noon.

— CalifJim

  • vkr6078 I have always wondered whether "this morning" is present or past.
  • It's not a verb, so it has no tense.
  • It's a noun phrase whose referent is the current morning, the time period of this day until 12 noon.
  • vkr6078 isn't "this morning" a completed period in the past ?
  • No.
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1 Answers
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vkr6078I have always wondered whether "this morning" is present or past.
It's not a verb, so it has no tense. It's a noun phrase whose referent is the current morning, the time period of this day until 12 noon.
vkr6078 isn't "this morning" a completed period in the past ?
No. Not if there is still more of the same morning
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