We Indians often say "I finished my homework today itself", which I know is wrong. Which is the correct way to say it?

We use 'itself' to emphasize that the homework was done today, not yesterday. Nor was it delayed till tomorrow. What is the correct way to emphasize the fact that the homework was done today?

Solution 1:

The word 'today' has the literal sense of 'on this day'. So in American English we would actually treat the word 'today' as self-emphasizing.

Simply saying "I finished my homework." without any indication of time or day is a complete and sufficient sentence.

By adding to that statement ("I finished my homework today." or "I finished my homework yesterday.") you are already emphasizing the meaningfulness of the word 'today'.

A related but separate concept is whether the homework 'belongs to today'. If the goal is to state "I was given homework today, and I have finished that homework." then the statement would be made "I finished today's homework.".

Solution 2:

In some contexts, when there is doubt about the veracity of your statement, you can use do to add emphasis.

I did finish my homework today.

However, in most cases, you don’t need to add anything.

I finished my homework today.

The word today doesn’t leave much room for ambiguity. Unless the person doubts your sincerity, it’s perfectly clear when the homework work was finished, and any emphasis would be redundant. If doubt is in the air, as mentioned earlier, you can use do to emphasize that the event did happen.

If need be, in spoken English, you can also emphasize it by accentuating the word today.

Solution 3:

You could use "on this very day." But I don't believe very many English speakers would use an expression like that to emphasize something as banal as finishing their homework.