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Unread Apr 26th, 2010, 04:20 am
susan53 susan53 is offline
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Default Re: Too many questions about grammar amd meaning

I had never been Australia before but (now) I have been Australia (for 5 weeks).--> I mean that now I have live in Australia for 5 weeks and this is the first time for me in Australia. So what is the correct sentence?

"had been" sounds strange here. You might say :

This is the first time I've been to Australia. I've been here (for) 5 weeks now.

This is my first visit to Australia. I have never been here before.
or I was never here before (which answers your other question)

"had + past participle is used to talk about a past event which happened before another point in the past so isn't relevant here. You might use it to say eg :

I had never been to Australia before 2008, but since then I've been there 7 times!
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