The short answer
English never combines today with a part of the day. For the current day, English uses this: this morning, this afternoon, this evening — and tonight. ‘Today morning’ is a word-for-word translation of the Hindi aaj subah — perfectly logical, but not English.
Why do we say it?
Almost every Indian language builds this phrase the same way. Hindi says aaj subah (today + morning). Bengali says aaj shokale. Tamil says indraikku kaalai. The pattern is: day word + time word.
When we translate that pattern directly into English, we get ‘today morning’. The logic is flawless. The problem is that English simply chose a different word for the current day's parts: this.
Think of ‘today’ as already meaning this day. Saying ‘today morning’ is like saying ‘this day morning’ — English finds that one word too many.
Every combination — the full table
| Wrong ✗ | Correct ✓ |
|---|---|
| today morning | this morning |
| today afternoon | this afternoon |
| today evening | this evening |
| today night | tonight |
| yesterday night | last night |
| tomorrow night | tomorrow night ✓ (correct as it is) |
💡 Note the two special cases: tonight(one word, not ‘this night’) and last night(never ‘yesterday night’).
The ‘yesterday’ twist
Here is where it gets interesting. Yesterday morning, yesterday afternoon, and yesterday evening are all perfectly correct. Only yesterday night is wrong — English says last night.
Think of it like this
In the English mind, the night belongs to the day that has just finished — it is the lastthing that happened before you woke up. So the language reaches for ‘last’, the same way it says ‘last week’ or ‘last year’.
Exam tip — SSC CGL / CHSL / IELTS Speaking
In error-spotting questions, examiners hide this error inside a longer sentence so the time phrase looks natural: “The minister arrived in Delhi today morning and met the delegation.”The error is in the first segment — it should be this morning.
In IELTS Speaking, saying ‘today morning’ or ‘yesterday night’ is exactly the kind of small, repeated slip that keeps a candidate at Band 6.5 instead of 7 — it signals translated English rather than natural English.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 'today morning' correct English?+
No. Standard English does not combine 'today' with 'morning'. The correct phrase is 'this morning'. 'Today morning' is a direct translation from Indian languages (Hindi 'aaj subah', Bengali 'aaj shokale') and is understood in India but is not standard English.
Is 'yesterday night' correct?+
No. The correct phrase is 'last night'. English never says 'yesterday night'. However, 'yesterday morning', 'yesterday afternoon', and 'yesterday evening' are all correct — night is the only exception, because the night belongs to the day that has just ended.
What is the correct way to say 'today morning' in English?+
Say 'this morning'. Similarly: 'this afternoon', 'this evening', and 'tonight' (not 'today night'). For the future, say 'tomorrow morning', and for the past, 'yesterday morning' — those two are correct as they are.
Why do Indians say 'today morning'?+
Because most Indian languages build the phrase exactly that way: Hindi says 'aaj subah' (today + morning), and speakers translate it word for word into English. The logic is perfectly sensible — English just happens to use 'this' instead of 'today' for the current day's parts.
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