Hello Lydia,

To provide a simple answer: you can use “present perfect”(현재완료) with from.

In fact, using “from” is not a sole decision factor for choosing between “present perfect” or “past simple” tense. What’s important is what the sentence is trying to say, or the context of it.

“The project had many issues at the beginning, but it was smooth sailing from November”

The sentence can be written the following way as well:

The project had many issues at the beginning, but it has been smooth sailing from November.

Now, the problem is that this sentence is implying that there’s something more after the sentence, because it says “it has been”, it is implying that it is not smooth anymore, whereas the original sentence does not carry such nuance. That is why to provide a translation without meaning to have more context, we would stick with the original sentence.

Have a look at this simpler sentence: 나는 2020년 5월부터 저축을 했다.

1. I saved money from May 2020.
2. I have saved money from May 2020.

Are they both grammatically correct? If that’s your question, then the answer is yes.

Are they delivering the same meaning? The answer is still yes. BUT, the translation #2 probably has something more to say. So, without any more context, if I had to choose, I would probably choose #1 over #2.

Have a look at this sentence: 나는 2020년 5월부터 저축을 했지만 내 은행에 모인 돈은 없다.

1. I saved money from May 2020, but I don’t have any money saved up.
2. I have saved money from May 2020, but I don’t have any money saved up.

Now, with more context, I would choose #2 over #1 to deliver the correct meaning because of the clear timeline, but still saying #1 isn’t wrong.

I hope this makes sense.

Best regards,

Mason U, CMI-Korean
Business Interpretation and Translation in Korean (BIT-K) Instructor