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So I was on my way home from school, and I overheard two people talking about something. The one asked the other:
''Did I show you my graduation photo?'', I asked my self whether it shouldn't be ''Have I shown you my graduation photo?'', since it is a link to the present.
The two people weren't native speakers and neither am I, but I have a feeling that both are correct in AE.
Could anyone enlighten me about which one is correct.
Thank you
Normally questions with "Did you ...?" refer to a definite time in the past indicated with adverbs or adverbials such as yesterday, lately, last week, last year etc.
And normally questions with "Have you + past participle" ask about a fact with no regard as to when it was. A professor of literature might ask a student "Have you read Hamlet/Beowulf? The professor wants to know whether the answer is yes or no.
These are the normal uses, but in real life questions asking for facts are also done with "Did you...?" as has already been said in the posts above. Why? Well, I think in colloquial language it's a bit cumbersome to analye such questions and in fast talk there is often no time for such analyzing. So the grammar system is often simplified and speakers use "Did you...?" when actually "Have you ...?" should be used.
Both are correct in English (not just American, but all dialects, as far as I'm aware). There is, as you've mentioned, a distinction in tense--"did I show" is past tense, whereas "have I shown" is present tense, perfect aspect--but in conversation the meaning doesn't really change between the two. There are nuances of difference that might be important in other situations, but in this case, there's no appreciable difference between "did show" and "have shown." So yes, both are correct.
I often heard my aunt's nurse say :
Did you take your vitamin this morning?
In this context (patient and her nurse),"did" appears/sounds a better option, more formal.
Have you taken your vitamin this morning? ....will sound a little informal.
Crux: the meaning stays the same.
The two forms are not the same.
Even though there are instances where both are equivalently usable, there would be many instances where one should be used in preference to the other.
For example, the differences in the following is very obvious without need for much explanation.
Another example.
