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Moonrise Posted 3 years ago
Grammar

He has written a book, "How to Succeed".

teechr
Moonrisethere are some cases where I find it difficult to decide whether I should use the simple past tense or the present perfect tense.

In some scenarios, either tense can work. It's not always clear cut.

MoonriseTherefore, if I get confused, I feel safer using the simple past tense.

Do you have an example in mind?

That's what I'm thinking about. I made up the following scenarios to remove the confusion I have about this tense.

Case1:

Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in Jan 2022, and he finished it in December 2022. Now, if I want to talk about this in Jan 2023, what should I use?


Case2:

Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in March 2018. He's about to finish in Jan 2023. His book just needs a final revision.


Case3:

Tom started writing a book titled "How To Succeed" in 1950, and he published it in 1955. Although it was written and published many years ago, the book has been very popular till our day. People always talk about it. It highly impacts young people. It inspires whoever reads it. If you read it, it doesn't make you feel like it was written a long time ago. It's like the book is becoming new year by year. They even use it as a reliable source of education. Which tense should I use?


Thank you very much.

  

Top answer

Moonrise Case1: Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in Jan 2022, and he finished it in December 2022. Now, if I want to talk about this in Jan 2023, what should I use? Yes, here you can use the present perfect because it's a recent event (Tom has written a book called "How to Succeed".

— Teechr

  • Moonrise Case1: Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in Jan 2022, and he finished it in December 2022.
  • Now, if I want to talk about this in Jan 2023, what should I use?
  • Yes, here you can use the present perfect because it's a recent event (Tom has written a book called "How to Succeed".
  • However if you mention the exact date of the publication, then you'd need the past simple "Tom's new book 'How to Succeed' was published in January 2023'".
  • Moonrise Case2: Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in March 2018.
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1 Answers
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MoonriseCase1: Tom started writing a book named "How To Succeed" in Jan 2022, and he finished it in December 2022. Now, if I want to talk about this in Jan 2023, what should I use?

Yes, here you can use the present perfect because it's a recent event (Tom has written a book called "How to Succeed". However if you mention the exact date of the publication, t

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