Hi Hairy Scot,

Interesting question. In my opinion, there is no difference in meaning between the two. In the case of the former, it seems to me that the more natural word order -- 'there can only be one' -- has been changed for dramatic effect and to emphasise 'only one', but again, that's just my opinion!

Thank-you all very much for your input, and apologies for my taking a while to reply. As I said before, I do see that using 'attend' instead of 'go' would clear up any confusion, but I also agree with Warsaw Will that I find 'go' more natural in everyday conversation.

With regard to your point, Matthaeus, assuming you're referring specifically to the use of the present perfect here (as opposed to that usage of 'go' in general, which I think is fine), then yes, I take your point onboard, and see that the example provided might seem that way to some listeners (I wasn't sure about it in the first place, and that's why I asked!)

Again, thanks all for kindly sharing your views on my question.

Hi Hairy Scot. Thank-you for your question. You're right, of course, that using 'attended' would clear up any ambiguities or awkwardness, but the crux of my question was more about the use of 'have gone' than about how best to rephrase my student's example.

The above posters mentioned that the use of a continuous would be more appropriate, which I agree with, but in present perfect section of the textbook I use (Total English -- a Japanese textbook for middle school ESL learners) there are examples such as:
I have played the piano for X years.
I have studied English for X years.

It was in this context that my student asked about the sentence in the original post, and I wanted to check whether or not such a sentence was correct.

Apologies for the lengthy explanation, and sorry if I didn't make the context clear in my original post, but thank-you for the input!

Thanks! Those look like some great resources (and a very interesting blog too, I might add!)

Thank-you very much for your reply! Your comments have been of great help to me in understanding this issue. (Also, I've bookmarked the netspeak site; it seems like it could be very useful!)

It's a difficult language we speak, but I suppose that's what makes it so fascinating sometimes.

Again, thank-you very much for your help!

Thank-you all very much for your comments. I particularly appreciate your detailed and considered explanation, Warsaw Will.

The general consensus appears to be that it would be odd to use 'have gone' in the sense I asked about, and that it would be more natural to use a continuous form. I agree and think "have been going to" does sound more natural.

Raymond Murphy says, in 'English Grammar in Use':
"When we ask or say 'how long', the continuous is more usual."
And also:
"You can use either the present perfect continuous or simple with live and work."

Thank-you again for your help. I do appreciate it (I think, to be honest, I thought about this for too long and ended up with jamais vu!)

As a final aside though, I'd like to ask about the case of a sentence such as:

"I have always gone to X High School."

Would it be correct to think that the use of 'have (always) gone' is acceptable in this case (because of the use of 'always')?

(My apologies for bothering you with this follow-up question. I'm just very interested in whether or not we can use the past participle 'gone' with 'have' in the sense of 'to go to school', or whether we will always need to use 'been' in some way.)