Saying what you've done before in Japanese

Level A2

Saying what you've done before in Japanese

Someone asks if you've ever been to Japan. They don't mean a particular day: they want to know whether that experience is part of your life. By the end of this lesson, you can say you have or haven't done something, and ask others the same. The main idea is this: 〜たことがあります says an experience exists in your life so far, without saying when; as soon as you name a specific day or month, you go back to ました.

Warm-up: exists, and happened

Two things you know come together here. あります says something exists: ここに本があります, “there's a book here.” ました tells what happened: 昨日駅に行きました, “I went to the station yesterday.” The new pattern uses the first to talk about the second.

Review: the た form

The pattern starts from the た form, the plain way of saying an action happened. Read these three verbs aloud; the table has no audio, but you'll hear all three in the next sections. 食べる swaps る for た. 飲む becomes 飲んだ, with だ. 行く becomes 行った, with a small っ. These are the same verbs as with ました, in their plain past.

DictionaryPolite pastた form
食(た)べる（たべる）食べました（たべました）食べた（たべた）
飲(の)む（のむ）飲みました（のみました）飲んだ（のんだ）
行(い)く（いく）行きました（いきました）行った（いった）

Model: at a Japanese restaurant

The owner chats with a customer. Listen once without reading. The first and the last questions ask about experience; the one in the middle asks when. Listen for how the ending changes.

Two words

日本 (Nihon) is Japan. こと (koto) isn't an object here: it turns the action before it into something you can talk about, like a noun. 行ったこと (itta koto) is roughly “having gone.”

Saying you have done it: 〜たことがあります

Put こと after the た form, then があります. Word for word, 行ったことがあります is “having gone exists”: the same が and あります as in 本があります, except that what exists is an experience. The verb before こと stays in its plain た form; あります at the end is what makes the sentence polite. The rest of the sentence keeps its particles: 日本に, この魚を.

〜たことがあります

Saying you never have: 〜たことがありません

Change あります to ありません and the experience doesn't exist in your life so far: 食べたことがありません, “I've never eaten it.” To say this, only the end changes; 食べた stays as it is.

〜たことがありません

Asking about an experience: 〜たことがありますか

Add か at the end, as in other polite questions. English often puts “ever” here; in these questions Japanese needs no separate word for it, because the pattern itself asks about your life so far.

〜たことがありますか

Short answers

You don't have to repeat the whole sentence. はい、あります is enough for yes, and いいえ、ありません for no, whatever the verb in the question was; the translation just follows the question. You can also keep the verb: いいえ、食べたことがありません. Answering はい、行きました would be answering about a particular time, which is the next section.

Experience or dated event?

English draws a similar line: “I've been to Japan” gives no date, but with “in May” you need “I went.” Compare 日本に行ったことがあります with 5月に日本に行きました. The first says the experience is part of your life. The second reports one event, in May. A specific day or month, like 昨日 or 5月, calls for the ordinary past, ました in a polite sentence: 昨日この魚を食べました, not ことがあります. A wide stretch of your life, such as your childhood, can go with ことがあります, but that's beyond this lesson.

From the experience to the event

That's why a conversation often moves from one to the other, as in the model. 行ったことがありますか opens the topic. After a yes, いつ行きましたか asks about the event, and the answer uses ました. 5月 takes に, like the hours; 昨日 doesn't. いいえ、行きませんでした, which you only need to recognize here, is about one occasion: you didn't go that time. 日本に行ったことがありません covers your whole life so far.

When “have” and “never” mean something else

The English “have” and “never” match this pattern only when they talk about life experience. “Have you eaten today?” is about today, not your life, so Japanese says 今日はご飯を食べましたか, with ました. “I never eat meat” is a habit: 私は肉を食べません says you don't eat meat as a rule; 私は肉を食べたことがありません says it has never happened. And “already” or “yet” about something expected today have other ways of being said, outside this lesson.

Your turn

You're at the restaurant. Cover the sentences below. Ask the other person whether they've ever had this tea. They say yes, so ask when, then give their answer: yesterday. Last, say you've never eaten this fish. Then check. If another food or drink you know comes out, even better.

In short

た form + ことがあります: the experience is part of your life. た form + ことがありません: it has never happened so far. か makes the question, and あります or ありません answers it briefly. Name a specific day or month, and you're back to ました.

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