Have you ever been or gone windsurfing?

[ostap77]

You use it only to talk about a situation during which something else happened or was happening, eg:
Have you ever been watching TV when there was an earthquake?

You could as well rephrase the sentence like this:
Has there ever been an earthquake when you were watching TV?

I might have misled you. I meant, what would be the difference between "Have you ever been backpacking?" and "Have you ever backpacked?"?

 

[engee30]

I might have misled you. I meant, what would be the difference between "Have you ever been backpacking?" and "Have you ever backpacked?"?

Just like in the case of windsurfing, I can't see a significant difference here, really, ostap77.

 

[5jj]

Sorry. I meant been, not the whole phrase have been.

It's still never the past participle of GO.

 

[engee30]

It's still never the past participle of GO.

NOTE: Been is the past participle of be: I've never been seriously ill. It is also the past participle of go: I've never been to London. Gone is also a past participle of go: They've been to the cinema means that they went but they have now returned. They've gone to the cinema means that they went and are still there now.

(c) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

 

[5jj]

NOTE: Been is the past participle of be: I've never been seriously ill. It is also the past participle of go: I've never been to London. Gone is also a past participle of go: They've been to the cinema means that they went but they have now returned. They've gone to the cinema means that they went and are still there now.

This is one of those rare occasions when I think the OALD is wrong.

This is, in my opinion, an idiomatic use of the perfect tense of BE. To call been (+ to) a past participle of GO with the meaning of 'gone to and returned from' is stretching things a little.

 

[Khosro]

They are all correct, considering the fact that "Have you ever been windsurfing?" is not in present perfect continuous tense but peresent perfect.

engee30 presented his own interpretation about this comment of me. I didn't say that here "been" means "gone" or anything like this.

I just wanted to say that here, "been", is not part of the verb phrase "have been windsurfing", simply because this sentence is not a present perfect continuous sentence. In my opinion something is omitted in this sentence (fivejedjon knows the technical term for it). I make a equetation:

"Have you ever been windsurfing?" ==> "Have you ever been somewhere and busy windsurfing?" or "Have you ever been somewhere windsurfing?"

 

[5jj]

[...] I didn't say that here "been" means "gone" or anything like this.

I just wanted to say that here, "been", is not part of the verb phrase "have been windsurfing", simply because this sentence is not a present perfect continuous sentence. In my opinion something is omitted in this sentence (fivejedjon knows the technical term for it). I make a equetation:

"Have you ever been windsurfing?" ==> "Have you ever been somewhere and busy windsurfing?" or "Have you ever been somewhere windsurfing?"

I am not sure that I agree with you there, Khosro.

I think that 'I have been windsurfing' is nearly as linked (if that is the right word) to 'I go windsurfing' as 'I have been to Japan' is to 'I go to Japan'. It's not an exact parallel, because 'I go windsurfing' can have an idea of' 'I do windsurfing' - there is not necessarily a strong idea of 'going' as there is with 'to Japan'. However, I think that 'been' is in some way part part of the phrase 'have been windsurfing'. I agree that, in this example, it is not a present perfect continuous.

The term you are looking for may be 'ellipsis'. I don't think there is any ellipsis here.

 

[Khosro]

I am not sure that I agree with you there, Khosro.

I think that 'I have been windsurfing' is nearly as linked (if that is the right word) to 'I go windsurfing' as 'I have been to Japan' is to 'I go to Japan'. It's not an exact parallel, because 'I go windsurfing' can have an idea of' 'I do windsurfing' - there is not necessarily a strong idea of 'going' as there is with 'to Japan'. However, I think that 'been' is in some way part part of the phrase 'have been windsurfing'. I agree that, in this example, it is not a present perfect continuous.

The term you are looking for may be 'ellipsis'. I don't think there is any ellipsis here.

I just thought that "windsurfing" here could be a present participle used as a modifier (perhaps). If this sentence has nothing to do with ellipsis then I will think of it as a phrase just like "been to somewhere".

You said that in "have you ever been windsurfing" there is not necessarily a strong idea of "going" as ... ; Yes, but there is an idea of "doing something in it's place". If we consider almo's first post in this thread and his/her examples, we see that we can not say "have you ever been doing yuga?", the reason is that we don't need to go to any special place or to do yuga. Am I right or not?