I am curious whether it's just my brain that doesn't work right

[dr4b]

You're describing your travel experience to someone... which of these sentences would you SAY? As in, speaking, not as in writing an email/etc -- you're at the office or somewhere talking to somebody. Assume that you actually have the experience of travelling to France and Spain at some point in your life, and someone's asking you about what countries you have the experience of travelling to or plan to travel to.

(oh, and assume appropriate abbreviation, ie, "I've" instead of "I have", if that helps.)

[Poll #1413618]

And a better question: does it change if you are writing a report or article rather than just speaking?

Comments

[dr4b]

I guess here's the thing:

If someone comes up to me to talk to me on the subway and is practicing their English and says "Where are you from? Oh, Seattle? I have visited Seattle once! The weather was very rainy."

...I understand what they're saying, but my immediate thought is "You are speaking very good Textbook English, sir, and my guess is that you did not spend a LONG time in the USA."

Because I think that speaking naturally, most of us would say "Oh, Seattle! I've been there once! It rained a lot!"

[qiika.livejournal.com]

Getting rid of "have" turns your first sentence into "I visited Seattle once!" which to me sounds more natural.

[discofish.livejournal.com]

Actually your comment points out an interesting nuance to this discussion:

Have you ever been to Tokyo?
--I visited once last summer.
--I lived there for three years.
--I've been there a couple of times.

I think it's perfectly natural to use visit in its context, although it's a bit specific to ask if someone has ever visited a place...

A: I used to live in Tokyo when I was young.
B: Have you been back to visit?

[chamois.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to jump on this bandwagon (which I am not quite sure how to express in the poll).

I've been to France.
I visited France.
I've seen France.
I've taken a trip to France.
all have subtly different meanings and they can all be useful in spoken English.

Somehow "I've / I have visited France" seems less appropriate for spoken English than without the "have." I think it might have something to do with when I would use "visit." Specifically, I think I would be most likely to use it when telling a story. I forget the various tenses, but I have foo isn't the past tense you usually use for telling a story.

[katybeth]

But if he said, "I visited Seattle once," would that be as bad?

[dr4b]

It's not as bad but it still sounds weird to me. At least, I wouldn't say it. I think I'd actually say "oh, cool, I went to Seattle once..." or "I took a trip to Seattle last year," or more like that.

[katybeth]

Yeah, "visited" would not be my verb of choice, but I don't think it would sound weird to hear. (Or maybe it would.)

But either way, "I have [verbed] before" or "I [verbed] once." If you say "I have [verbed] once" it emphasizes "exactly once."

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

That's because you're not pretentious enough. You need to use more polysyllabic latinate words. :P (I mean, "I visited Seattle once" sounds much better to me than "I went to Seattle once", if only because it also implies your final destination (Seattle) and purpose (visitation).)

[februaryfour]

The "once" makes a difference. You wouldn't say "Oh, I visited Seattle!"