It's been a long time since I went to Canada
Does the above sentence mean: since first or last went to Canada?
When you as a native speaker hear the above and below sentences, could you give me probabilities (by a sample of number of visits ) on the difference between those two sentences? This is of course if the first sentence has the meaning: first went to Canada
It's been a long time since I have been to Canada
If you feel it is better to change a long time into e.g. 5 years to make your answer clearer, then please do so.
Best Answer
To me, the above sentence is ideal only in cases where there is only one visit to Canada. In that sense, it would be both a first and the last (most recent) visit. That said, it's a valid construction in a situation where multiple visits had occurred, but in these cases I’d argue for:
The way I figure it, the statement above has two main pieces of information:
I have been to Canada (at least once; possibly multiple times)
It has been a long time since then (since my last visit)
Broken down the same way, the first sentence has these two main pieces of information:
So it comes down to what you want to say. This might be the situation:
You could make an argument for either option in this case, but I maintain that the second sentence would more clearly indicate multiple visits.