When to use it
Use it when friends suggest a sushi place and it would be your first time.
The sentence in English — “I've never eaten Japanese food.”
In “I've never eaten Japanese food.” life experience uses ‘have’ plus the past participle, with ‘never’ between them.
- I
- pronounpersonal pronoun, always written with a capital letter
- 've
- auxiliary verbhave · tense: present · person: first · number: singular · short form of "have"; with "eaten" it talks about life experience up to now
- never
- adverbadverb of frequency
- eaten
- verbeat · form: past participle · irregular verb: eat, ate, eaten
- Japanese
- adjectiveadjective of nationality, always capitalised in English
- food
- nounnoun
The sentence in Punjabi — “ਮੈਂ ਕਦੇ ਜਪਾਨੀ ਖਾਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਖਾਧਾ।”
In “ਮੈਂ ਕਦੇ ਜਪਾਨੀ ਖਾਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਖਾਧਾ।” the past verb ‘ਖਾਧਾ’ (ate) agrees with the object ‘ਖਾਣਾ’ (food), not with ‘ਮੈਂ’ (I), so men and women say it the same way. ‘ਕਦੇ … ਨਹੀਂ’ means never.
- ਮੈਂ
- pronoun'I'; in the past the verb agrees with the object, not with it
- ਕਦੇ
- adverb'ever'; with ਨਹੀਂ: never
- ਜਪਾਨੀ
- adjective'Japanese'
- ਖਾਣਾ
- nounmasculine noun 'food'
- ਨਹੀਂ
- particlenegation; with ਕਦੇ: never
- ਖਾਧਾ
- verbਖਾਣਾ · tense: past · form: masculine singular · 'ate'; masculine because ਖਾਣਾ (food) is masculine
English × Punjabi — What changes from one language to the other
English ‘never’ is one word; Punjabi splits it into ‘ਕਦੇ … ਨਹੀਂ’, and its past verb follows the object.
Example conversation
— ਮੈਂ ਕਦੇ ਜਪਾਨੀ ਖਾਣਾ ਨਹੀਂ ਖਾਧਾ।
— I've never eaten Japanese food.
— ਫਿਰ ਅੱਜ ਰਾਤ ਚੱਲਦੇ ਹਾਂ!
— Then let's go tonight!