if you have go, going, gone
what is "went"?
my native brain told me it's go, going, went
???????? english????
grammar is complicated, but an answer if you want one
@nomo english has a lot more than three verb tenses! sometimes we reuse the conjugation from another similar tense (often with an extra word doing the modification bit—any time you see will/would/could/have before a verb they’re actually part of the verbs grammar) but other times they get their own so you end up with wildcards like went, which is used for the past preterite of go, while gone is user for the perfect tense
eg.
i will go to the store (simple future)
she goes to the store every week (habitual, which used the present tense)
i am going to the store (present continuous)
i was going to the store yesterday when i saw a raven (past progressive)
i have gone to the store twice (present perfect)
i went to the store yesterday (past preterite)
grammar is complicated, but an answer if you want one
@nomo i’m glad it was helpful! i think its something that throws a lot of people because the version of english grammar we’re taught in schools is highly simplified, but then you do pick up an intuitive sense for the more complex real grammar through listening/speaking. it can be really confusing to have to try to resolve conflicts between what ‘feels’ right and the rules you learned!
grammar is complicated, but an answer if you want one
@Satsuma i love this reply! i always struggled with tenses, the fact there's a lot of them makes sense thank you!