I saw a sentence in an email and thought it was a bit awkward. Please see below
"I have served in the army for over 20 years until I retired."
The person is no longer in the army but wrote me such a sentence. If the person is no longer in the army, can the person use "have served"? Shouldn't it be "I served in the army for over 20 years until I retired"? Or is this person simply stating that he has the experience of serving in the army some time in the past?
Answer
This should be, as you say,:
"I served in the army for over 20 years until I retired."
Most native speakers don't know how to use the present perfect, and most non-native Anglophones make many errors in tense and aspect in English. Tense in English is sometimes quite difficult.
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