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04-06-2010, 02:38 PM

I am not specialist on this but i would describe it as this:

example: Maria came to see me, but I was gone.
I believe that "I was gone" is passive voice of simple past tense
see this page: Learn English - Passive Voice

we can look at it as association of status/condition, so my status when Maria came to see me, was "gone", i know it is a verb as word, but look at it as my condition, so rather as adjective associated with me.

example: Maria came to see me, but I had gone.
this is past perfect tense
so this time look at it as on full verb construct consisting of inseparable components of "had" and "gone", which together makes a single verb of specific tense. And this verb expresses my activity in past... which is i have got to other place even before when Maria came to see me.

what is better to use? I believe (although i might be wrong), both ways have same meaning in result, but first is focused on expressing someone's status which would anyway be a result of such activity which expresses a second example so the second one is focused on describing of activity which happened before the first part of sentence (or the context generally).
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04-06-2010, 03:38 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by berrypie View Post
EDIT: I just noticed that the title of this thread is "I was gone/I has gone". "I has gone" is incorrect; it should be "I have gone". "Has" is used for third person singular (he has / she has/ it has).
Yes.. typing error I meant had, not has

Quote:
Originally Posted by Blitzwing85
I don't think 'gone' would be used either. It would be changed to been, went, going etc.
But you could also use 'gone' when referring to another person again. Maybe speaking about someone who has went to Rome and you have not.
Why do you say "who has went"? Shouldn't you use the past participle of go which is gone?


E'l naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare di Dirac.
(And to flounder in this Dirac sea is sweet to me.)
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04-06-2010, 04:01 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by lucagalbu View Post
Why do you say "who has went"? Shouldn't you use the past participle of go which is gone?
That's probably a typo, and they meant "gone", not "went".


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Unfortunately for you, she is not here.

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04-07-2010, 08:04 AM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Koir View Post
That's probably a typo, and they meant "gone", not "went".
It wasn't a typo as such, more a mistake of typing my dialect rather than the correct way of writing it. (i sometimes do this by mistake).

That's how i would say it if i spoke about it. But should have wrote 'gone'.

See, this is where languages get confusing for people. Even i made errors because the way i write and the way i speak are often quite different.


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04-08-2010, 09:41 PM

Ok.. I think I have understood!! (is this the right tense or should I say "I think I understood"?)
Just one more thing: in the first post I wrote " 'I was gone' sounds to me"...but when a native speaks, does he says "sounds to me" or "sounds me" or both?


E'l naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare di Dirac.
(And to flounder in this Dirac sea is sweet to me.)
Leopardi feat Paul Dirac
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04-08-2010, 10:04 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by lucagalbu View Post
Ok.. I think I have understood!! (is this the right tense or should I say "I think I understood"?)
The expression is "I think I understand".

Quote:
Just one more thing: in the first post I wrote " 'I was gone' sounds to me"...but when a native speaks, does he says "sounds to me" or "sounds me" or both?
"Sounds to me" is the correct phrase to use in that context.


Fortunately, there is one woman in this world who can control me.

Unfortunately for you, she is not here.

"Ride for ruin, and the world ended!"
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04-09-2010, 06:02 AM

"who has went" would be a dialect form that a small number of English speakers from particular regions use. It's not standard and to most English speakers sounds like an error.

I don't think you need to worry about this too much- I honestly can't think of very many situations where I would use "I was gone"- about the only one would be to mean "I had left", but even then I probably wouldn't use it. Even "I had gone" is not used that often by most people. "I had been" would be much more common. We are more likely to use "gone" when talking about other people, since it means leave and not come back.
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04-10-2010, 09:51 AM

I understand!
Thanks to all


E'l naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare di Dirac.
(And to flounder in this Dirac sea is sweet to me.)
Leopardi feat Paul Dirac
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