i have been there yesterday

[Chart]

why cant i say "i have been there yesterday" what tense is this and what tense should it be?

[Jamie (K)]

You can't use the present perfect tense to describe a past event if you have named a completed time in the sentence. Since you have said it happened yesterday, you have to use the simple past.

[Chart]

thanks Jamie as a matter of interest
would you know what the difference in meaning and verb patterns are between

“I stopped smoking” and I “I stopped to smoke”?

[Jamie (K)]

"I stopped smoking," means that you don't smoke anymore.
"I stopped to smoke," means that you stopped in order to smoke.

Are you really a trainee, or are you a student asking us to do your intermediate homework for us?

[Chart]

I know what they mean its just the verb patterns i have to decide on, im a student/trainee, learning to be a teacher

[OxfordBlues]

The present perfect actually reads as "this verb is completed as of now (the present)" so you can never use the present perfect with a specific time phrase (because the specific time is always 'as of now'). Thus if it says yesterday you have to use the past perfect.

As for the second part:

I stopped smoking. = I stopped...(what did you stop?) the activity of smoking.

I stopped to smoke = I stopped...(why did you stop?) the reason I stopped is so that I could smoke.
_________________
There's no such thing as an exception to the rule...

My blog: http://calleteach.wordpress.com