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

[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.