Lately I’ve heard so many people confuse “went” with “gone” that I decided it was worth a blog post on the topic. “Went” and “gone” are both variations of the verb “to go” but are used in different tenses. Here’s an explanation of the difference:

WENT is the simple past tense of TO GO:

• Yesterday I went sailing for the first time
• Yesterday you went sailing for the first time
• Yesterday he/she went sailing for the first time
• Yesterday we went sailing for the first time
• Yesterday they went sailing for the first time

GONE is used in the present perfect and past perfect tenses of TO GO:

Present perfect:

In the past month I have gone sailing twice

• In the past month you have gone sailing twice
• In the past month he/she has gone sailing twice
• In the past month we have gone sailing twice
• In the past month they have gone sailing twice

Past perfect (also known as pluperfect):

• Before today I had gone sailing only once
• Before today you had gone sailing only once
• Before today he/she had gone sailing only once
• Before today we had gone sailing only once
• Before today they had gone sailing only once

I hear the mistake most often when people say “have went” when they should say “have gone.” For example:

• I should have went sailing instead of coming here (INCORRECT)
• I should have gone sailing instead of coming here (CORRECT)
• We could have went sailing instead of coming here (INCORRECT)
• We could have gone sailing instead of coming here (CORRECT)

A clever trick for remembering the difference is to say the following out loud: “Correct answer, where have you gone?” Your ear probably knows that question is phrased correctly, so modeling it will tell you the answer.

-Maria

This blog post originally appeared on CreateSpace.com. Reprinted with permission. © 2017 CreateSpace, a DBA of On-Demand Publishing, LLC. All rights reserved.