A lil English question

[Agentt]

Context: I remember almost nothing of what i learnt in grammar class. My grammar check currently is to just stare at a sentence and decide if it feels okay.


So, my father and I were talking when the topic shifted to grammar, and there were some things he was confused about(my father is English relearning grammar)

Short story short,
Are the statements:

Did you went there?
Have you ever gone there?
Have you been there?

Correct? If so, then in what context would they be applicable in?

 

[gaylolis]

just copy pasta them to grammarly if you're lazy.

 

[Agentt]

just copy pasta them to grammarly if you're lazy.

The bots aren't very good at understanding the context unfortunately, grammarly is unreliable unless you are writing completely formal English.

 

[gaylolis]

The bots aren't very good at understanding the context unfortunately, grammarly is unreliable unless you are writing completely formal English.

>Did you went there?

no, i'm too lazy today.

>Have you ever gone there?

yes, it's a long time ago.

>Have you been there?

only for a few minutes.

imo all sentences i consider correct if it can successfully convey the asker's intention, but getting the answer is a completely different matter.

like, you can just say 'no' to every single one of them even before they finished.

 

[LilRora]

Take it with a grain of salt cause I'm not native, but as far as my understanding goes the first two are not correct. The first is gramatically incorrect (maybe it is good in some context, but I don't know it), the second is technically correct, but weird, and the last is correct.

Did you went there?

It's a double use of past tense. Normally you would say either "Have you gone there?" (which still sounds weird, because "gone" suggests someone hasn't returned; it would work better with another person) or "Did you go there?", depending on context. "Have you went there?" also sounds weird.

Have you ever gone there?

Is gramatically correct, but weird, because you would usually ask "Have you ever been there?". "Gone" suggests that someone went somewhere and hasn't returned, so asking if someone has ever (in a period of time, being their life) went somewhere and hasn't returned. So they went there and are still there, but the word "ever" doesn't work here, because it means they are talking after the fact ( I think? I got confused myself when explaining that, to be honest).

In short, asking "Have you ever gone there?" is like asking a person standing in front of you if they went somewhere and still remain at that place, which is logically impossible if we are talking to them at another place.

Though I think you can use that informally, just that it's not exactly correct logically.

Have you been there?

That's absolutely correct (though it works better with "here", I think), and it's used to ask if someone visited someplace in general. It can usually be used instead of "Have you ever been there?", it's just more general, though it usually refers to a place someone is in at the moment, while "ever" suggests you're asking about some other place.

For example, "Have you been there/here?" can be used when you're standing in front of a museum and asking your girlfriend if she has been there, and "Have you ever been there?" is used if you are asking the same question at home.

"Have you been there?" also refers to more recent past, I think.

Edit: On second thought, I'm pretty sure the third one is not correct in formal English. Though I don't see problems using it informally.

Not sure how correct my take on it is cause I'm not native, but hope that helps.

 

[RavenRunes]

If you're in the North of England then 'have you went there' is totally legit and we invented English so... 'did you went there', no we wouldn't say that.
Grammatically though both are horrible so don't.
'have you gone there' works when you're on the phone to that twat whose daughter you've kidnapped and you're giving instructions on what to do next. 'So... The phone booth... Have you gone there, with the money!?'. Totes legit.
'Have you ever gone there' is weird.
Last one fine.

 

[Nekroz]

Take it with a grain of salt cause I'm not native, but as far as my understanding goes the first two are not correct. The first is gramatically incorrect (maybe it is good in some context, but I don't know it), the second is technically correct, but weird, and the last is correct.


It's a double use of past tense. Normally you would say either "Have you gone there?" (which still sounds weird, because "gone" suggests someone hasn't returned; it would work better with another person) or "Did you go there?", depending on context. "Have you went there?" also sounds weird.


Is gramatically correct, but weird, because you would usually ask "Have you ever been there?". "Gone" suggests that someone went somewhere and hasn't returned, so asking if someone has ever (in a period of time, being their life) went somewhere and hasn't returned. So they went there and are still there, but the word "ever" doesn't work here, because it means they are talking after the fact ( I think? I got confused myself when explaining that, to be honest).

In short, asking "Have you ever gone there?" is like asking a person standing in front of you if they went somewhere and still remain at that place, which is logically impossible if we are talking to them at another place.

Though I think you can use that informally, just that it's not exactly correct logically.


That's absolutely correct (though it works better with "here", I think), and it's used to ask if someone visited someplace in general. It can usually be used instead of "Have you ever been there?", it's just more general, though it usually refers to a place someone is in at the moment, while "ever" suggests you're asking about some other place.

For example, "Have you been there/here?" can be used when you're standing in front of a museum and asking your girlfriend if she has been there, and "Have you ever been there?" is used if you are asking the same question at home.

"Have you been there?" also refers to more recent past, I think.

Edit: On second thought, I'm pretty sure the third one is not correct in formal English. Though I don't see problems using it informally.

Not sure how correct my take on it is cause I'm not native, but hope that helps.

I agree with all of this. Mostly, at least. The last one does not work with formal English. It would be ("Technically") more correct to say: Have you ever visited (Insert name of location here.)

Most people don't talk formally, though, so you'd be fine with the last one.

 

[Jemini]

Alright. I'm a native speaker, and have perfect scores in college level reading comprehension courses and excellent grammar. Here are my answers to these questions.

Did you went there?

No, this is just plain incorrect grammar.

Have you ever gone there?

This... is technically correct. It doesn't violate any grammar rules, but people don't talk like this in real life. If you want to be closer to how real people talk, drop the word "ever," and/or add the word "before" to the end of the sentence.

Example:

"We were just trying to plan a trip to Disney Land."

"Have you gone there before?"

"No, this will be our first time."

"Well, I recommend you reconsider. It's way overpriced these days."

Have you been there?

This one is absolutely correct grammar.

Example:
"The Disney Star Cruiser Hotel is a total rip off."

"Have you been there?"

"No, I don't have to have been there. Nothing they can possibly do will ever make it be worth $6,000 per person."

EDIT: I would like to note, the last sentence in this post (the one representing the person's response in the example line,) is an example of grammar that is technically incorrect, but people in real life talk like this all the time. In other words, an English teacher in a class room setting will rip your head off if you write something like that, but if you are out on the streets you will find people talking like that every day and you won't even have to look very hard.

The culprit lines are "have to have been there." (A grammar teacher would want you to use "need to have been there," but real people don't actually talk like that.) and "ever make it be worth $6,000." (A grammar teacher would want you to just eliminate the word "be," but a normal person on the street would actually find it a little strange if you didn't have that word there)

 

[ARedFox]

I am a native English speaker. For writing, treat it as if Jemini is fully correct on #1 & #2.

#3 works for me, but depending on the circumstances surrounding its use, it may need some tweaking. You could also add a "before" at the end of #3 if it fits the situation.

This... is technically correct. It doesn't violate any grammar rules, but people don't talk like this in real life.

This is the only part I disagree with. There are 100% people who will say that in real life. I'm pretty sure I have. English is different everywhere and gets used differently everywhere. Native English speakers tend to get lazy and informal with it as well. So while not common, I believe it is quite normal for people to say something similar.

While not a direct comparison, the word bubbler, is a decent example. Using bubbler instead of drinking/water fountain doesn't make a sentence fail grammatically, but it certainly doesn't seem quite right and you won't hear the majority of the population use it. However, that doesn't mean that someone won't.

I think it would be more accurate to say that it doesn't work as well in books. It can be hard to think of when a character might say something not quite standard like that, when, as Jemini showed, there are more standard/better ways to say it.

 

[Gibbs505]

Context: I remember almost nothing of what i learnt in grammar class. My grammar check currently is to just stare at a sentence and decide if it feels okay.


So, my father and I were talking when the topic shifted to grammar, and there were some things he was confused about(my father is English relearning grammar)

Short story short,
Are the statements:

Did you went there?
Have you ever gone there?
Have you been there?

Correct? If so, then in what context would they be applicable in?

The first one shod be "Did you go there?"
The second and third are just fine, The second statement is an expansion looking for more information. The 'ever' modifies it.

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

Of those statements, "Did you went there?" is never used in my local dialect. I personally do use the second "have you ever gone there?" and the third "have you been there" in my spoken language, although other people in my area rarely use such passive phrasing. "Have you been there?" contains an implied 'recently,' while 'ever gone' expands it indefinitely into the past. Most people in my area sometimes use "Were you at place name?" when asking for someone about their past presence at a specific location. Most often, English speakers in my region use the general question "Where were you?"