LEARN + JAPANESE / Note 111 JLPT N4
Sometimes, and I've Done It Before (ことがある)
ことがある attaches after a verb, and what it means depends entirely on the tense in front of it. Dictionary form + ことがある describes something that happens occasionally. Past た-form + ことがある describes something you’ve experienced at least once.
Sometimes I eat cake late at night.
On weekends I usually go to restaurants, but sometimes I cook at home too.
In Real Life
This dictionary-form version pairs naturally with 時々 (sometimes) or 大抵〜が、時々〜 (usually X, but sometimes Y), describing a pattern with occasional exceptions, not a one-off event.
I've never climbed Mt. Fuji.
I've stayed at a Japanese inn before.
In Real Life
The past-tense version names a life experience, ever having done something, regardless of when or how often. あります confirms you’ve done it at least once; ありません says you never have, both completely unrelated to routine or frequency.
My grandmother used to live in Tokyo at one point.
In Real Life
い-adjectives and な-adjectives also take ことがある in the past form to describe something that was once true but no longer is, 髪が短かったことがあります, “her hair used to be short,” a useful way to talk about a past state that’s since changed.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| sometimes | |
| usually | |
| all day long | |
| comic book | |
| movie theater | |
| Japanese inn | |
| to climb | |
| sumo wrestling | |
| grandmother | |
| pilot | |
| hair | |
| short | |
| fan (of something) | |
| river | |
| dirty | |
| road, path | |
| dark | |
| in front of the station | |
| population | |
| experience |