"I've realized my mistake when I had a look at the blog." Is it correct?
I'm not sure if I should use "I had a look" or "I took a look". Is it both correct?

It's something that I wrote in English and I need to explain the error.

Thank you in advance :)

Question

"I've realized my mistake when I had a look at the blog." Is it correct?
I'm not sure if I should use "I had a look" or "I took a look". Is it both correct?

It's something that I wrote in English and I need to explain the error.

Thank you in advance :)

Answer

Hi Mirian,

You should say "I realized my mistake when I had a look at the blog". You need to use the Past Simple of the verb 'realize' because 'when I had a look at the blog' is a finished time period (just like 'yesterday', '2 hours ago', 'in 2005' etc).

'I had a look' and 'I took a look' are both possible.

Jamie (www.italki.com/jamie.teacher)

Answer

Both are correct, but since "when I (did something)" refers to a very specific point in time, you should use Past Simple: I realized my mistake when I took/had a look at the blog.

I've (I have) is Present Perfect. We use it specifically to say that an action happened at an UNSPECIFIED time before now.

No pierdas la oportunidad de aprender un idioma desde la comodidad de tu casa. ¡Explora nuestra selección de profesores de idiomas con experiencia e inscríbete ya en tu primera clase!