Mistakes review #1 Hello! I've already forgotten how helpful italki is. It turns out that my English is much worse than 6 months ago. This is so good that I decided to write here agian. I want to review mistakes from my yesterday's note. I've never done this before. I mean I've never written about them here, I used to just look grammar rules up, but that wasn't enough. It'll be better to write mistakes and rules. GERUND vs. INFINITIVE Wrong: I finished to read "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury a week ago. Correct: I finished reading "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury a week ago. When I saw this mistake, I recalled a video. I don't know why I forgot about it, when I wrote the note. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kexNA1nH-IQ Now I totally understand this silly mistake. :) By the way, "finished" is a word followed by gerunds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa5FG3ZvlhU Wrong: I have to get used to write in English again. Correct: I have to get used to writing in English again. A helpful video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhwGtNzdDmc In my situation the gerund is "writing" - an object of a preposition. PAST SIMPLE vs. PRESENT PERFECT Here is a corrected extract from the note: "At least I learned English from time to time during these months. My last messages here were about the first book of The Hunger Games. Well, I read the second and the third ones." One English speaker corrected the last sentence. "Well, I have since read the second and the third books as well." Why did he use Pr. Perfect? I asked him, but I think he haven't seen my question yet. Two other English speakers didn't correct this sentence. Is it allowed to use Past Simple and Present Perfect in this situation?