I have an English student from Japan asking when do you use "Where have you been?" as opposed to "Where did you go?" in reference to a colleague who was not in school today - can anyone help me explain this correctly to him please?
Thanks
It is difference between 'being located in place' and 'going to a place'. Other languages differentiate by using different words for 'where' (i.e. one in the nominative and one in the accusative.) Russian is the best example I can think of: GDE (where)KUDA (to where).
GM is correct, of course, but perhaps this might also help:
“Where did you go?” uses the simple past tense, so we tend to use it when we are thinking about a particular time in the past. For example:
A: I decided to go for a drive last night after dinner.
B: Where did you go?
“Where have you been?” uses the present perfect tense, so we tend to use it when we are not thinking about any particular time in the past, just sometime generally before now. The more we are focused on this moment now, the more likely the present perfect is to occur. For example:
“Oh my, look at the dirt on your hands and face! Where have you been?”
Or:
“You are finally home safe! You are so late! I was so worried! Where have you been?”
Or:
“It’s nice to see you again after such a long time. Where have you been?”
There is a continuum of cases which range from those in which the simple past would be wrong, to others where the present perfect would be wrong at the other extreme, with an area of overlap in which either might be possible to varying degrees.
The simplest thing might be to suggest that she, when in doubt, ask herself “When?“ If she knows (or cares) more or less precisely when the person went/was somewhere, and she should chose “Where did you go?” If then answer is “I don’t know when” or even “it doesn’t matter exactly when”, then she should choose “Where have you been?”