What are you doing in the middle of a brace of pheasant, Stew? 
In this particular sentence, I’d be far more likely to use “gone to”. Although I wouldn’t rule out the use of “been to” (nor would I consider it “wrong” or even “odd”), it is nevertheless pretty unlikely that I’d use “been to” in this particular context.
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But can you tell us why? What is systematic about the use of “I’ve gone to” that persuades you to choose it over “I’ve been to” in such contexts. What’s the grammar story behind this use?
hi
maybe a brace of birds, prehaps all called David and dangerous, caused my bike accident.
Since I have gone to the emergency I am in an arm brace.
And you still feel like posting here? You’re a hero, S.
Sorry about the accident. Hope you’re not too badly hurt.
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As I’ve stated previously, “go to” is often used with a sense that is similar to “attend”.
I am not aware of any absolute, prescriptive rules for this usage, if that’s what you’re after.
Off the top of my head, I’d say this usage of “go to” probably reflects a combination of things. It seems to me that the ideas of activity, participation, interaction, and movement rather than simply “being” are probably important aspects.
What’s the grammar story behind “I’ve been to”?
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This is the normal grammar explanation for “'ve been to” and “'ve gone to”:
How could one explain to students the AmEng usage of “X has gone to Y” vs. “X has been to Y” usage? Is it systematic, and how does it relate to other AmEng uses of the present perfect? And finally, what is the lexical meaning of “gone to” and of “been to” in AmEng?
I’m looking more for a description of the canonical use and why it came about.
It’s above. But, “been” can also mean activity, participation, interaction, and movement rather than simply “being”. Is that not so in AmEng? Think especially of “I’ve just been to the bathroom/toilet”. 
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Would you say the word “go” is more dynamic than the word “be”?
You may simply have to settle for that idea.
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If that’s what you think it is, I may indeed have to settle for it. It may be part of an AmEng trend to “simplify” lexis (i.e. losing the contrast of go and return versus go) or it may have just begun as an “error” and then refused to go away. I wonder why it hasn’t caught on in many other varieties though.
How would you or other AmEng speakers see the difference in meaning of “go” here?
Have you ever gone to that festival.
Have you ever gone out only to find you left your keys at home.
And if “gone” can mean attended, etc. is it possible to say “I’ve gone to that college for three years” if I no longer attend the college?
I don’t see it as a “simplification” or an “error” at all. And your inability to understand the usage suggests that it’s not all that simple.
If anything, the use of “been to” seems far more simple, general and undynamic to me than “go/went/gone to”. And the word “be” does not in and of itself indicate either “go” or “return”. In general terms, you’d have to say the meaning of “be” is similar to “exist”. Technically speaking, adding the word “to” after the word “been” really only indicates towards. The word “to” in and of itself does not indicate two different directions at once.
This usage of “go to” really is not unheard of in BE, is it. You Brits do say things such as “go to school” and “go to church”, don’t you? It may well be that we’ve simply extended that usage to more things than you have.
What’s the grammar story behind “go to school/church”?
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You are being quite sloppy. I said that “go to” is often used with a meaning similar to “attend”. The word “to” is part of the expression – just as “to” is part of the expression in “been to”. It is possible to use “go to” in a variety of tenses/verb forms.
If I no longer attend the college, I might say “I went to that college for three years.”
A more likely sentence for the present perfect might be something like this:
- I’ve been feeling like death warmed-over, so I haven’t gone to any of my classes yet this week.
OR this for the present perfect continuous:
- He’s been going to XYZ University for ten years now and he still hasn’t managed to graduate.
I don’t see it as a “simplification” or an “error” at all. And your inability to understand the usage suggests that it’s not all that simple.
Simplification can often complicate matters, can’t it?
Yes, I know that, but we are comparing “been” and “gone” when used with “to”. the “to” in gone to" is not different from that found in “been to”, is it?
More than they have, maybe. I’m just trying to understand the meaning and usage of a certain item.
I think the problem you may face is in using your “have gone to that festival many times” and similar, internationally. The meaning of “been to” is very strongly associated with “go and return” and “gone to” with go. But who knows, we now have Englishes, so maybe your “gone to” use will expand its and we’ll all forget about poor “been to”. If that happens, how will we distinguish between “go and return” and “go” when using the present perfect? I dunno.
On language change and variation: there is a sense in many quarters that AmEng is moving away from the present perfect and into using the preterite more. Would you call that a move toward simplification in usage or one toward complication?
Good grief!
You don’t appear to have taken any of this very seriously, or even thought very much about anything. You seem to be in your standard “I want to purposely muddle things as much as humanly possible” mode.
If I say “I’ve been to Jamaica five times”, I would not interpret the meaning of that to be similar to “attend”. I doubt that you would either.
That particular sentence was your concoction, not mine. Nevertheless, that was quite a prescriptive, pompous and inflexible sort of statement to make. :roll:
To be perfectly honest, I simply do not believe that you cannot understand a sentence such as “I’ve been sick, so I haven’t gone to any of my classes this week”.
:roll:
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Hi, Amy
like death warmed-over is a new one to me, though I’ve heard of like death warmed-up (I have a hunch that it is of British origin).
Do you use only like death warmed-over, or also the other variant with up ?
As we’ve both said, “attend” is only one of the meanings of “been to”.
So you want to get personal, do you? I was pointing out a fact, i.e. if enough non-American people have it stuck in their heads that “been to” means “go and return” and “gone to” means “go”, you may have a problem when communicating your “gone to” internationally. I do not prescribe anything here, I only said that something may happen. Similar comments happens day to day here. From you and from others we here advice regarding certain variant forms and their wide-scale acceptability. My statement was nothing more than that. You must use what you choose to use and whenever.
I understand it, but something about it jars -as does “I’m being very happy today” for some.
Hi Alex
I’ve never used “like death warmed up” myself. The first time I heard the “warmed up” version of that expression, it came from a British mouth.
dictionary.cambridge.org/define. … &dict=CALD
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What nuance would an AmEng speaker suggest there is between the use of gone and been here?
“The nuns had not told the mother her baby would be stillborn. There is only so much grief that a human can bear. In better times, assistance would have been sought sooner. But the journey involved carrying her four hours over steep mountain tracks. When you are dying from hunger, the dilemma of survival provides difficult choices. Tigre Province is in the grip of a little understood war and a silent famine. Both events have been sparsely reported in the international press - presumably because few journalists have gone/been there to see the situation firsthand.”
hi alex
“death warmed up” you will only hear from a British mush (mouth).
I only ever heard death gone over twice from a Brit, not in common usage though Amy ; ).
But shows sometimes AmE and BrE are quite close, innit?
Only geographical and prepositional difference ; )
Not also from an Aussie or Kiwi mush?