Do you know the difference between “She went to London” and “She has gone to London”? Many students, from advanced to beginner levels, find these structures challenging. In this guide, you’ll find a clear breakdown of when to use “went” and “have gone”, plus a bonus look at “have been” and some other uses of “go” that often get missed. 

The Basics

“go” has two key past forms: go => went => gone

• went = past simple
• gone = past participle

“gone” is usually paired with the auxiliary “have”

In the present perfect simple, it’s “have gone” or “has gone”

• I have gone => I’ve gone
• He has gone => He’s gone

You might hear some speakers say “have went” or “has went”. This isn’t standard, but it’s used in certain dialects. In this guide, we’ll focus on the standard forms “went” and “have gone”.

 

Went

“Went” is the past simple of “go”.

We use it to describe a completed action at a time before now. It’s often paired with a finished time expression like “last week” or “two years ago”.

• She went to London last week.

“Went” tells you the action of traveling or moving to another place is finished. The tense alone doesn’t tell you whether she’s still in London or not.

Have gone

“Have gone” is the present perfect simple of “go”.

We use it to talk about things that happened in the past but are relevant in the present. There’s no finished time expression.

• Where’s Claire? – She’s gone to London.

“Has gone” tells you she is either in London now, traveling there, or on her way back. The action has relevance to the present moment because someone is asking where she is now. 

Note: Don’t use a finished time expression with “have gone”.

❌ He’s gone out an hour ago.

❌ I’ve gone swimming last week.

✅ He went out an hour ago.

✅ I went swimming last week.

 

Compare the responses to the question, “Is Rob here?”

 

A note on regional usage:

“Have gone” is very common in British English. When asked, “Where’s Ollie?”, many BrE speakers will reply, “He’s gone to the gym.”

Other BrE speakers and many North Americans will use the past simple instead: “He went to the gym.” Both work and sometimes there’s no real difference in meaning.

The same is true for questions:

• BrE: Where’s Emma gone?
• NAmE: Where did Emma go?

Just/ Yet/ Already

The adverbs just, yet and already are commonly used with “have gone” in British English

• Tom’s just gone to grab something to eat. He’ll be back in a sec. 
• Have they gone home already?

In North American English (and sometimes BrE), you’ll hear the past simple instead:

• Tom just went to grab something to eat.
• Did they go home already?