Grammar question

Ania

- I have a question about English grammar:
When do I have to use past tense and when perfect tense?
For instance:

Past tense: I finished reading the book yesterday.
Perfect tense: I have finished reading the book yesterday.

Which of them is grammatically wrong and which right and why?

- Another question about English future tenses:
When do I use 'will' and when 'going to'?

Thank you for your help.

beardedchicken

my immediate reaction is that in the perfect tense sentence, the ungrammaticality has something to do with "have " and "yesterday" being in the same sentence.

to me, the sentence
"i have finished reading the book" is grammatical, but
"i have finished reading the book yesterday" is not.

the fact that you specify a day or time for reading the book seems to be the problem.
i should know why this is, but i can't remember at the moment. sorry i couldn't be more helpful

Ania

Thank you very much, however, and what you say really makes sense.
And I assume you can also explain me when I have to use the "ing- form"!
What's the difference between 'I read a book' and 'I am reading a book'?

Alun

Ania wrote:

Thank you very much, however, and what you say really makes sense.
And I assume you can also explain me when I have to use the "ing- form"!
What's the difference between 'I read a book' and 'I am reading a book'?

'I read a book' as a standalone sentence (assuming the 'read' is the present tense and not the past) doesn't make much sense. 'I read books' does, and means 'I habitually read books'. This is called the Present Continuous tense.

'I am reading a book' refers to that fact that, at the current time, you are in the process of reading a book. It's called the Present Continuous tense.

It's a distinction that doesn't exist in other languages, and one that confuses most learners of English as a foreign language. I see from your profile that you're from Poland ... I'm afraid I know little about Polish as a language, so I can't help by offering any equivalent sentences in your language. Is it like Russian at all with regards to grammar? One problem many Russian speakers have with English is the use of definite and indefinite articles, i.e. 'the' and 'a', since these don't exist in Russian.

simu

I will do it and I'm going to do it mean the same thing although the second one might suggest you're just about to do the action, in my mind at least.

I am reading a book means that you are reading a book as you speak ("Be quiet - I'm reading a book") or that you have started a book and have yet to finish it - "I'm reading the new Harry Potter book at the moment".

I read a book - if this is in the past tense (in which case read is pronounced "red"), it means that you have consumed a book at some point in the past.

If read is in the present tense (pronounced "reed") you'd be referring to something you do regularly - "I read a book every Friday", "When I'm bored, I read a book".


Hope this makes some sense!