"I went" vs "have gone" - Know the difference!

[00:00:00]Do you honestly know the difference between these sentences?

[00:00:05]She went to London. She has gone to London.

[00:00:10]If you're not sure, do not worry. Lots of people are confused by this, but I am going to clear up your doubts. No more confusion on went and have gone. And we will look at have been as well as a bonus to make sure you remember everything that you learn today.

[00:00:31]Download the PDF that goes with this lesson. It's free. It contains everything we talk about today, and it has a quiz to test your knowledge and a link to some interactive activities. If you'd like to download that for free, just click the link in the description box or scan that QR code there. I'll send you the PDF to your email. Okay, let's begin.

[00:00:54]Went and gone are both past forms of go.

[00:00:59]Went is the past simple, and gone is the past participle. I pronounce gone with the short aw vowel sound to rhyme with on.

[00:01:11]Gone.

[00:01:13]In North American accents, it often has a longer vowel sound like aw.

[00:01:19]Gone. I need to invite in my American friend to do a little demonstration for you. Joel.

[00:01:24]>> Gone.

[00:01:26]>> Thank you. Gone is usually used with a form of the auxiliary to have. In the present perfect simple, it's have or has. I have gone. She has gone. But in speech, have is usually contracted to of, apostrophe v e. I've gone. And in he has gone, has is contracted to z, apostrophe s. He's gone. Now, you will hear some speakers say have went or has went.

[00:02:02]This is not standard English, but it is used in certain dialects. Don't use this in an exam. We're going to focus on the standard forms went and have gone in this lesson.

[00:02:15]Let's examine the sentences from the introduction. We're focusing on the meaning of to go as in to travel or to move to another place. So, she went to London.

[00:02:28]We know went is the past simple. This describes a completed action at a time before now. Often, we use a finished time expression such as last week or 2 years ago. She went to London last week.

[00:02:46]Using went simply tells you that the action of traveling or moving to another place is finished.

[00:02:54]The tense alone does not tell you if she's still in London or not. Now, compare that with our second sentence.

[00:03:03]She's gone to London. We see the present perfect simple has gone.

[00:03:09]We use this tense in a few ways, but one is to talk about things that happened in the past but are relevant in the present.

[00:03:19]This would answer a question like, "Where's Claire?"

[00:03:22]She's gone to London. She is either in London or she is traveling there or on her way back. This has relevance in the present as someone is asking where she is now. There's no finished time expression. Remember, if we want to use a finished time expression, we use went.

[00:03:43]Let's say someone asks, "Is Rob here?"

[00:03:47]We might reply, "He went to the shop about an hour ago."

[00:03:52]Or we can say, he's gone to the shop.

[00:03:56]He'll probably be back soon. Based on the rules we just talked about, how would you complete these sentences? We to Derbyshire last year. We had a great time.

[00:04:10]And my parents to Derbyshire.

[00:04:15]They are having a great time. So, the first one would be went. It's a finished action.

[00:04:25]We had a great time. The second would be have gone because they are still there.

[00:04:33]They are having a great time. Have gone is a common structure in British English. When asked the question, "Where's Ollie?" many British English speakers will reply, "He's gone to the gym." But other British English speakers and many North Americans will choose the past simple instead. He went to the gym.

[00:04:55]Sometimes went and have gone communicate the message equally well and there's no real difference in meaning. The same is true about this next question with gone.

[00:05:07]In British English, we'd usually ask, "Where's Emma gone? She was here a moment ago."

[00:05:14]Meaning, I saw her very recently. Where is she now? But other speakers, especially in North America, might say, "Where did Emma go? She was here a moment ago." Now, people will understand you no matter which tense you use here.

[00:05:30]We often use the adverbs just, yet, and already with have gone. For example, Tom's just gone to grab something to eat. He'll be back in a sec. Sec is short for second. Or, have they gone home already? Or, Tom just went to grab something to eat. You'll hear this in British and North American English. Or did they go home already?

[00:05:57]That's more common in North American English. You'll also see went and have gone followed by an ing verb, meaning someone goes to do something.

[00:06:08]For example, Kelly went fishing yesterday.

[00:06:12]Or Kelly's gone fishing. And followed by an adjective, meaning to become.

[00:06:19]My hands went numb when I was out in the cold. Or my hands have gone numb.

[00:06:26]They're numb now. The most important thing to remember is not to use a finished time expression with have gone.

[00:06:34]So, this is incorrect. He's gone out an hour ago.

[00:06:39]Mhm.

[00:06:41]I've gone swimming last week.

[00:06:44]Absolutely not. You should say, he went out an hour ago.

[00:06:50]I went swimming last week. For additional examples with other meanings of go, download the PDF. The link is in the description box, or you can scan that QR code there. It's a really useful one.

[00:07:05]Okay, so that's went and have gone.

[00:07:08]Before we move on, I want to touch on had gone.

[00:07:12]This is the past perfect used when one past action happened before another. For example, he'd already gone home by the time I arrived. Both events are in the past, but had gone makes it clear which one came first. Again, download the PDF for more information.

[00:07:37]Let's move on to our bonus structure now. What is the difference between these sentences?

[00:07:43]They've gone to Spain. They've been to Spain.

[00:07:47]Well, we know that have gone means they haven't returned yet. They are in Spain or perhaps traveling there or traveling back. Have been means that they traveled to Spain and came back. Been is the past participle of be, but it's also often treated as a past participle of go. In fast speech, we tend to pronounce been with the short i sound, bin. They've been to Spain. See if you can complete these examples. Use gone or been.

[00:08:23]Where have you I missed you.

[00:08:27]Where has Jack I miss him.

[00:08:31]Okay, the first one is been.

[00:08:35]They went and came back and the speaker is talking to them now.

[00:08:40]So, the second one should be gone. Jack is not here and the speaker misses him.

[00:08:47]The question, have you ever been or have you ever been is commonly used to ask about life experiences up to now.

[00:08:56]We don't tend to use ever in questions with gone. Compare these two.

[00:09:02]Have you ever been on a roller coaster at any point in your life? Has he gone on the roller coaster? I thought he was too scared.

[00:09:11]Meaning is he on the roller coaster now? Now, can you remember how to ask questions with go in the past? You heard one slightly earlier in the video.

[00:09:23]Did you go? Not did you went.

[00:09:27]An example, did you go on the roller coaster yesterday? We can also use gone as an adjective, usually after the verb to be.

[00:09:37]It means having left a place.

[00:09:40]Lily's been gone for about an hour. She left about an hour ago. Or I didn't see Liam or Faith at the party.

[00:09:50]They were gone before I got there.

[00:09:53]They left before I arrived. Lastly, I want to mention the idiomatic phrase been and gone.

[00:10:00]This means that someone was in a place for a short time and then left. Notice how I use the weak form of and.

[00:10:08]Been and gone. And been and gone. You will also hear people say bin and gone.

[00:10:15]Bin and gone. Now, let's say someone asks has Dylan been to see you?

[00:10:21]You might reply, yes, but he's been and gone. He was in a rush.

[00:10:26]He was here for a moment and then he left. Okay, let's finish with a quick three question quiz. Complete the sentences with went, has gone, or has been. Use each once.

[00:10:40]One.

[00:10:41]She to Glasgow. She'll be back tomorrow.

[00:10:46]Two.

[00:10:48]She to Glasgow yesterday.

[00:10:52]And three. She to Glasgow, but I'm not sure when.

[00:11:01]Okay, number one should be has gone. Because she traveled there and is still there.

[00:11:08]Some speakers would use went here. Two should always be went. The past simple with a finished time expression. And three is has been. Because she traveled there at some point and then returned.

[00:11:23]How did you do? What was your score out of three? Let me know in the comments.

[00:11:28]And with that, we've reached the end of the lesson. There's lots more to study and another quiz and some interactive activities. You can access that for free by downloading the PDF. The link is in the description box or you can scan the QR code there. I will see you in the next lesson. Bye.

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