been or gone?

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ESL forum > Grammar and Linguistics > been or gone?

been or gone?

mailis

been or gone?

Dear colleagues, I need your help:

I came across the following sentence:

Mary _-------has been_------ in Japan for two years. She is working there and likes it very much.

my question is: since Mary is still in Japan (she hasn �t returned yet). Shouldn �t we write �has gone � instead of �has been �?

30 Oct 2009

ALEXOUILLE

Yes indeed. And even Mary has gone to Japan.

30 Oct 2009

dear mailis,

it �s quite a normal sentence. it means that you should use present perfect continuous tense to show that mary came to japan, is there now and will stay there in future. but you can �t put "has been being" that �s why here the form which we have.

30 Oct 2009

Zora

It should be "has been" not "has gone".

It �s "has been" because - important to know - "gone" cannot go with "in" unless it �s a phrasal verb...

30 Oct 2009

�has been � is correct.

30 Oct 2009

It depends on what you are trying to say, they have two different meanings.

"Mary has been in Japan for two years"

---she went there two years ago and has stayed there the last two years

"Mary has gone to Japan for two years"

--Mary may have left yesterday (when she departed for Japan is not clear) and she will stay there for two years

---Linda (Zora) is right about "in" and "to".

30 Oct 2009

serene

In this sentence has been is the Present Perfect of the verb to be, not of the verb to go.

Mary came to Japan two years ago.

She is in Japan now.

So she has been there for two years.

edit: This sentence is different from She has been to Japan. (= she visited Japan some time in her life)

30 Oct 2009