Learn English – I have finished or I finished with simple present tense in one sentence

Context, context, context!

Briefly: the simple past is used to narrate past events. The present perfect is used to mention past events which give rise to a present state which is of present interest.

The children played in the sandbox for a while, then moved to the swings. At four o'clock their mother called them inside because it looked like rain.

The children have played in the sandbox and left their toys there. Tell them to go bring their toys inside.

However, the second could also be expressed with a simple past, and would probably be expressed with a past progressive. Play is an activity verb, which doesn't accommodate the perfect all that well. This example, with a telic verb (one which has a distinct change of state in its meaning) may be more instructive.

The children finished their chores, then went outside to play until their mother called them in.

The children have finished their chores; I am going to let them go outside and play now.

1. Present perfect cannot be used with a temporal expression which does not include the present. The present perfect cannot be used in this sentence because it locates the action entirely in the past: yesterday. You must use the simple past.

2. In this case ‹read› is not understood as simple present but as simple past. The two tenses are pronounced differently (present: /ri:d/, past: /rɛd/), but have exactly the same form in writing. Consequently, ‹read› is correct here.

3. It is only occasionally true that the present perfect "specifies an action that has recently finished". The present perfect has other uses, too.

For a detailed introduction to the uses of perfect constructions, see What is the perfect, and how should I use it?, especially §§ 3.1 Grammatical meaning, 3.2 Pragmatic meaning and 4. When and how should I use the perfect?.