Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rodent]

Dear Experts,
I was teaching the Present Perfect Tense to my students...and then we came acroos sentences of the type:

Have you ever BEEN sailing?
Have you ever BEEN fishing on Lake Michigan?
etc.

We all are aware of the difference between been to/gone to and been in:-)
Grammars, however, mention no special problems with HAVE YOU EVER BEEN/GONE SAILING? kind of structure....and although the book says that been is correct in that case and my intuition tells me the same thing....i must admit i found many occurrencies of this kind of structure both with BEEN and GONE...
I would be very grateful if somebody (a native speaker) could explain which form is correct? if both are, is there any difference between them and what is it?

Thank you very much in advance!!!
Nadya

[2006]

"Been to" and "gone to" have the same meaning, and sometimes "been in" also means the same.

Have you ever (been) (gone) sailing? are both correct. "been" emphasizes be there and do while gone emphasizes go there and do, but they both meaning exactly the same thing.
I would say "gone sailing". Of course in the above sentence you cannot say "been in".

'been in" means exactly that. Consider the following sentence.
Have you ever (been to) (gone to) (been in) Moscow?

All are correct and mean exactly the same thing, which is Have you ever visited Moscow? I usually say "been to".

I have the impression that teachers of English tend to oversell perfect tense. Of course they have to teach it but it should be made clear to the students that while sometimes perfect tense is the only correct way to say something, many times perfect tense is only one correct way to say it. If there also is a simpler way, simplicity should win.

Take the sentence, "Have you ever (been)(gone) fishing on Lake Michigan?" "gone" sounds better to me but instead of saying "Have you ever (been) (gone) fishing on Lake Michigan?", I would simply say "Have you ever fished on Lake Michigan?".