"Czytałam o jego morderstwie w gazecie."
Translation:I was reading about his murder in a newspaper.
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Why not "I have read..."? Of course I reported it, I am just wondering :)
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We probably wouldn't use Present Perfect here. There is a subtle difference between the use of Present Perfect and Past Simple in this context.
When we introduce new information that we've just read or heard about, and we don't specify when, we often use Present Perfect, at least in British English, usually with "just". But Past Simple is also possible, especially when talking about hearing it (because you heard about it at a specific time):
"I've just read in the newspaper that Joe Bloggs has been murdered"
"I just heard on the radio that Joe Bloggs has been murdered".
But in Duo's sentence, the use of "his murder", tells us that the speaker isn't introducing new information, but answering somebody, telling them that they had read in the newspaper about the particular murder which the other person has just mentioned. They would subconsciously think of this act of reading as a past event, so would use Past Simple:
"Have you heard? Joe Blogs has been murdered"
(New information, unspecified time - Present Perfect)
"Yes, I read about his murder in the newspaper."
"Yes, I heard about it on the radio".
(Specific event of reading/hearing - Past Simple)
Past Perfect is also possible, but I think we'd use it in a slightly different way, in conjunction with a verb in Past Simple:
"I rang Joe Blogg's wife to say how sorry I was. I had read about his murder in the newspaper"
This is complicated. But I think I have read is more "przeczytałam/przeczytałem".
sure, I'm native Polish speaker, I'm just wondering about the English sentence - if "I had read" is marked as correct, why "I have read" isn't? :)
Both English and Polish are second for me, but I think "I had read" is not correct either. Past Perfect is used to describe the action that is completed before another point in the past. And this point should be mentioned in the sentence.
Without a context, we can assume a possibility that this 'another point in the psat' is mentioned in another sentence that we don't see.
Past Perfect is rarely the main English answer, but in most sentences all kinds of Past Tenses are possible.
Does the "jego" refer to the murdered person, or the person who did the murder, or could it be either?
I would rather think about 'him' being murdered, but I guess it technically can be either.
I asked a few polish people and they said it could be assasination (Although it does not mean its the correct translation), but yes, I get it.