I work in the Netherlands and most of my Dutch colleagues tend to use the word 'send' instead of 'sent'. For example, "I send you a return email yesterday." instead of "I sent you a return email yesterday."
How do I explain to them (in simple terms!) the reason for using sent instead of sent>
On another matter, we use a lot of geographical descriptions but are unsure whether or not to use a capital letter when referring to an area i.e. should northern Russia be stated as Northern Russia, western England be Western England or southern Baltic Sea be Southern Baltic Sea?
Any help on the above would be greatly appreciated.
WRT place names, that's a great question. There is some leniency on this because it's not always obvious whether the "north" or "northern" (or whatever) is part of the name (i.e. part of the proper noun). If it is, then give it a capital letter.