[Alex80]

Hi,in British English, I saw that most sentences that have the subject "I" in statements, and "you" in questions take "been" not "gone".Like:
1. I've been to India.
2.I haven't been to India./ I've never been India.
3.Have you been to India?/ Where have you been?
So, is my conclusion correct for most sentences?
*Plus, don't you think that indicators like" ever,never,twice,three times,...,several times" come only with "been" as well?
Thanks

[susan53]

You will sometimes see expressions like I've gone twice particularly in US English (try Googling it - you'll find several examples on sites reviewing hotels, restaurants etc), but in other varieties the forms are often chosen to express a meaning difference :

Been = gone and come back here again
gone = ...and am still there.

So, if I needed to go to the supermarket, and my husband was out, I might leave a message for him saying I've gone to the supermarket - ie I'm not at home because I'm at the supermarket. But that evening when we discovered that there was no milk in the fridge I might say I've been to the supermarket once already today. I'm not going again! - ie I went there and am now back home.

So think about it - the reason that I've gone is rarer than eg he's gone /they've gone is the meaning : you can't be "here" and tell someone you're "there" at the same time. Except of course in the case of written messages and in other uses of go - eg become : Give me a minute - I've gone all dizzy - ie I'm dizzy at the moment.