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I want to say in English about some fact in the past, but it has an impact the present:

I have starting going to the gym last week? (I still go there)

or

I have started going to the gym last week? (I still go there)

What about that I want to say about the same action, but that action began much earlier:

I have starting going to the gym two years ago? (I still go there)

or

I have started going to the gym two years ago? (I still go there)

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The auxiliary have is always followed by a past participle, never any other form, so I have starting is never grammatical.

I have started going to the gym.

is grammatical, and completely natural, if you started recently, and are still continuing.

For me, I would not use the present perfect with a specified time, so I would not say I have started going to the gym last week, but rather

I started going to gym last week.

I would not count the form with have started as ungrammatical, but as less idiomatic.

If you are talking about two years ago, I have started going to the gym is disctinctly odd. If I've just met somebody I haven't seen for ten years, I could say I've started going to the gym for any time in those ten years, as long as I'm still going there; but in any other context it wouldn't fit.

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  • Of course, one would never say: I have started going to the gym last week. Why not just say it is ungrammatical? I think the only people who say that kind of thing are French and Spanish speakers. The French translate passé composé incorrectly as present perfect and in Spanish the equivalent to the present perfect could be grammatical.
    – Lambie
    Commented Mar 16, 2018 at 18:18
  • Hi thank You for response. So in the end: If I say : I started going to gym last week it could mens I’m still going, or not? Sorry 4my English... Where I live in Poland we have, a problem with a perfect tenses...
    – KamilJ
    Commented Mar 17, 2018 at 19:37
  • @KamilJ: Yes, I started going to the gym last week probably (but not definitely) means that you are still going; but I say "probably" only because "last week" is recent. I started going to the gym last year is completely open as to whether or not you are still going.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Mar 18, 2018 at 23:24

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