| Former-Teacher | Date: Saturday, 22.12.2012, 09:15 | Message # 1 |
 Dean
Group: Admins
Messages: 504
Status: Offline
| Dear Learners!
My experience tells me that Russian leaners of English often or almost always confuse these two grammar patterns - have been in and have been to.
Let's look into the meanings.
When you say "I have been to France a few times" or "I have never been to France" you should remember that the best translation is "Я ездил во Францию несколько раз" или "Я бывал во Франции несколько раз"
Pay attention to the preposition 'to' - this is the very monster that differs from the Russian "в". It is NOT "in" in these sentences.
When you use the preposition 'in' instead of 'to', it has an absolutely different meaning and there are usually time phrases showing duration in the sentence because it is a real present time event for which you also need the Present Perfect tense form.
E.g.: "I have been in France for two weeks now and I like it". - 'Я нахожусь во Франции уже две недели, и мне здесь нравится'.
When you speak about a past event, you can say: 'I was in France last year' or 'I went to France last year'.
That's why I have spotted this mistake in message '6' from Valerie Tr at http://groupa.ucoz.co.uk/photo....7-0-260 in which she used the preposition 'in'+Paris instead of 'to'+Paris.
I hope my explanation helps you learn this rule and be always correct with these two patterns 
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