estado vs ido

Sherri ..C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

estado vs ido

It appears to me that the better answer for "we have been" would be "hemos estado" rather than "hemos ido," which seems to me to say "we have gone."  In English, there is a difference between "been" and "gone."  Could you please advise.  Thank you.

Asked 4 years ago
InmaNative Spanish expert teacher in Kwiziq

Hola Sherri,

I imagine you are referring to this question:

Roberto y yo hemos ido muchas veces al cine. (Roberto and I have been to the cinema many times.)

We can't use here "hemos estado" because of the preposition we are using "al" (a el).

If it had the preposition "en", then we could have said:

"Roberto y yo hemos estado muchas veces en cine. 

In Spanish it is either "estar en" or "ir a".

Curiously, for a native Spanish it is also very confusing to see "been to" in English, as for us "to be" (estar) is a non-dynamic verb" and it is a bit weird to see it with the preposition "to" that indicates movement.

I hope this clarified it.

Saludos

Inma

Sherri .. asked:

estado vs ido

It appears to me that the better answer for "we have been" would be "hemos estado" rather than "hemos ido," which seems to me to say "we have gone."  In English, there is a difference between "been" and "gone."  Could you please advise.  Thank you.

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