This pair of been to or gone to is really confusing, and that is okay. I understand why people mix them up. If someone has another native language like French, it is probably the same thing. In English, however, we make a strong distinction between the two. What exactly are those?
“(to have) been to” is a special expression about having experience visiting a place.
Something important to notice when you choose been to or gone to (and the reason I have very strategically used the past participle in the title and not the infinitive) is because this expression is specific to the perfect tenses. It is impossible to say “I was to” or “I will be to” or “I was being to,” when you mean visit. Those expressions exist, and that’s a blog post for another time, but they do not have anything to do with having an experience visiting a place.
I’ve never been to Greece before, but I heard the climate is perfect there.
= I have no experience traveling to Greece before now. I heard the climate is perfect there.
My friend has been to every country in the EU.
= My friend has experience visiting every European Union country.
“(to have) gone to” or just “go to” is about the movement towards a direction
Notice that this one does not need to be in the present perfect tense to exist. It doesn’t matter what tense you use with “go.” It’s all the same meaning.
I have already gone to school, so can you check if I locked the door?
= I left the house and am now at school, so I cannot see the door myself. Please check it.
When I had gone to China, I gave my friend the key to my house to check my mail and look after my cat.
= At one specific time where I traveled to Europe, I lent my friend the key to my house.
We use the past perfect in this sentence because [going to Europe] happened before [the time the friend had the key].
“Been to” and “gone to” compared
I’ve been to the new park downtown.
= I have experience visiting the new park. (This is either the answer to the question “have you been to the new park?” or an invitation to ask “how is the new park?” because of the declaration of experience.)
I’ve gone to the new park downtown.
= I went to the park, and it has some positive consequences, meaning I am currently there. My current location is the park because of this specific past action of “going to the new park.” (This is probably the answer to the question “where are you?”)
“Be to” and “go to” in other tenses compared
I’ll be there in 15 minutes.
= My arrival time is 15 minutes after now.
I’ll go there in 15 minutes.
= My departure time is 15 minutes after now.
This whole post is based on the fact that “been to” has a special meaning when it is in a perfect tense. If it is not a perfect tense, “be to” is simply about location.
Also, don’t forget “here,” “there,” “home,” “upstairs,” and a few other nouns are special in English because they can never come after “to.” Because of this, the structures “been to” and “gone to” work equally if you use these words, despite the word “to” not being explicitly present.
In summary:
- “been to” is focused on there being an instance of experiencing a visit to a location
- “gone to” is focused on a specific action of movement to a location
Hopefully, that helps you understand whether you should use been to or gone to. This can be a very similar pair, but there is a very hard line between the two. They are used in entirely different situations, and native use them differently intuitively. If you need more help with English, you can find more on this blog. If you want to learn more about language learning at large, I have many helpful videos on my YouTube channel.
