Have you ever…? Talking about experiences

What you'll be able to do

Talk about your experiences without saying when they happened: places you've been, things you've tried, things you've never done. This is how people get to know each other in conversation, at work and in interviews.

The idea

When the time doesn't matter, only the fact that it happened at some point in your life, use the present perfect: have or has + the past participle.

• I've been to Japan twice.an experience, no time given
• She has never tried sushi.not at any time in her life
• Have you ever worked in a restaurant?at any time in your life
• We've seen that film three times.how many times, up to now

Many past participles are irregular: be → been, go → gone, see → seen, eat → eaten, write → written, take → taken, do → done, meet → met.

ever goes in questions ("Have you ever…?"); never makes the sentence negative, so don't add not.

Been or gone?

• Ana has been to Brazil.she went and came back
• Ana has gone to Brazil.she's there now

When you add a time, change the tense

The moment you say when, the experience becomes a finished event: use the past simple. This is the usual pattern in a conversation.

• Have you ever been to Canada?the experience
• Yes, I went there in 2019.the details, with a finished time

Common mistakes

• I have been to Paris last year. With a finished time (last year), use the past simple: I went to Paris last year.
• Did you ever eat octopus? To ask about life experience, Have you ever eaten…? is the standard form. (In American English Did you ever…? is also heard in conversation, but Have you ever…? is always right.)
• I have never not seen snow. Never is already negative: I have never seen snow.
• She has went to India. Use the past participle, not the past simple: She has gone / She has been.