been for Mandarin speakers — pronunciation and common errors

False friend

去过 (qù guo) means “to have gone to a place and returned” — While 'been' functions as the past participle of 'be', Mandarin speakers frequently map it exclusively to 去过 (qù guo) to express visiting a location. This leads to confusion when 'been' is used in the passive voice or to describe a state, such as 'It has been raining', which does not use the 去过 (qù guo) logic.

Grammar

Mandarin lacks a grammaticalized perfect aspect marked by auxiliary verbs and participles, instead using particles like 了 (le) or 过 (guò) to signify completion or experience. Learners often omit 'been' after 'have' or 'has', producing 'I have go' instead of 'I have been', or they incorrectly substitute a simple past form like 'was' or 'were' in perfect constructions.

Examples

• I have been to London twice.
• The manager has been in meetings all morning and is currently unavailable to take your call.