What is the difference? I haven't been/gone to the doctors." I am a native English-speak and an ESL teacher (yikes!) and I have racked my brain to figure this out: What is the difference between,

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What is the difference? I haven't been/gone to the doctors." I am a native English-speak and an ESL teacher (yikes!) and I have racked my brain to figure this out: What is the difference between, I haven't been to the doctors. I haven't gone to the doctors. Is one correct and the other not? and if so, why? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Dec 28, 2015 4:00 PM

Answers · 7

I'm sure you, as a native speaker, agree that "have been" sounds a lot more natural. But it does also seem odd to me, that in this situation, we would use the past participle of the verb "to be" (been) instead of "to go" (gone)!

December 28, 2015

Good question. "Haven't been" sounded correct to me. And based on the content in the links below I think that feeling is confirmed. These were results from searching "been gone usage". http://esl.about.com/od/grammarintermediate/a/cm_gone.htm http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-9892.php http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/been-or-gone Btw unless you're refering to multiple doctors, I think it should be "doctor's" i.e. the doctor's office.

December 28, 2015