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When talking about past experience, what is the difference between these two sentences?

  • Have you gone to Hong Kong?
  • Have you ever gone to Hong Kong?
RegDwigнt
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user52835
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1 Answers1

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Ever is roughly equivalent to in your life. So, for example, Have you ever seen a ghost? means Have you in your life seen a ghost? Sentences with ever are typical conversation starters:

Have you ever ridden a horse?

Have you ever been locked out of your house.

The same expressions without ever are generally about a single experience and are set in a context:

You look pale! Have you seen a ghost?

Why are you hanging around in the garden? Have you been locked out of your house?

So the question Have you gone to Hong Kong? makes sense in the specific context of phoning someone on a world trip and not knowing where they are. But it is unlikely to be asked as a general question about life experience. A much more usual way of formulating the question would be: Have you ever been to Hong Kong?

Shoe
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  • Would you mind replicating this answer, with the necessary adjustments in the following question?: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/30605/what-is-the-difference-between-ive-been-to-china-and-ive-gone-to-china I very much like the introduction in this answer, and I believe this aspect is often ignored in answers. – Mari-Lou A Mar 25 '16 at 11:26