"I have received" vs. "I received"

The option of using simple past vs. present perfect in situations like the following has been bothering me for quite some time.

I sent you a letter a few days ago; I was wondering if you have received it.

I sent you a letter a few days ago; I was wondering if you received it.

People use both of them, in most cases I would say interchangeably. I also searched it on google books, which turned out to be used in roughly the same way. I was wondering if someone could shed some light on what the difference between the two was? Which one is used more often and seems more appropriate over the other?

Solution 1:

To a first approximation both OP's sentences are valid - certainly they both mean exactly the same. But if I'm going to get "picky", I don't much like the first one...

?I sent you a letter a few days ago, I was wondering if you have received it.

...because there's a subtle clash of tense. "I was wondering" refers to my wondering in the past, but "if you have received it" asks about your status (of having received it or not) in the present.

Thus my own preferred version is neither of OP's...

I sent you a letter a few days ago; I was wondering if you had received it.

...but to be honest, I'm only proposing that for the sake of grammar. If I needed to convey the sentiment myself I'd just ask "Have you received the letter I sent a few days ago?". It seems to me the additional verbiage is just pointless circumlocution.

Regarding the "mixed tense" issue, note that "I was wondering if you had" is twice as common as "I was wondering if you have". A preference which is even more noticeable when comparing, say, "...if you knew" with "...if you know".

Solution 2:

The well-known difference between present perfect and past simple is that the present perfect refers to past events that have a present relevance to the speaker, whereas the past simple refers to past events that do not necessarily have a present relevance. With this is mind, a case could be made for saying that:

• I sent you a letter a few days ago; I was wondering if you have received it

implies that I am expecting further action by you or me dependent on your receipt of the letter.

On the other hand:

• I sent you a letter a few days ago; I was wondering if you received it

may simply be asking for confirmation of receipt of the letter without further action being necessary. Equally though, the speaker may have no such subtle difference in mind when asking the question. So essentially the two are interchangeable in this context.