Indicative Past vs Present with Write

Question

Write tenses and formations

I always get told off for saying I wrote an email and told I should say I have written an email. Why? When should you use these different tenses. Or point me towards a good cheat sheet.

Answer 1

You are entirely correct to say you wrote an email. It tells me that on one specific occasion you wrote an email. If you say you have written an email I might understand the same but could also understand that on some unspecified occasion you wrote an email.

Compare "I went to London. I wrote an email" and "I went to London. I have written an email". The first associates the writing with your being in London. The second tells us nothing about where you wrote your email.