When to use it
Use it to say that you have not tried Japanese food yet, for example when a friend suggests a Japanese restaurant.
The sentence in English — “I've never eaten Japanese food.”
"I've never eaten Japanese food" talks about experience up to now. "'ve" is the short form of "have", and with the past participle "eaten" it forms a perfect tense. "Never" goes between them. "Japanese" is an adjective of nationality and always has a capital letter.
- 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 Portuguese — “Eu nunca comi comida japonesa.”
"Eu nunca comi comida japonesa" uses "comi", the simple past of "comer". "Nunca" goes before the verb. "Comida" is feminine, so the adjective is "japonesa", in the feminine, and it is written without a capital letter.
- Eu
- pronounpersonal pronoun: "I"
- nunca
- adverbadverb: "never"
- comi
- verbcomer · tense: simple past (pretérito perfeito) · person: first · number: singular · "ate"; Portuguese uses the simple past where English uses "have eaten"
- comida
- nounfeminine noun: "food"
- japonesa
- adjectiveadjective, feminine singular: "Japanese"; it agrees with "comida" and has no capital letter
English × Portuguese — What changes from one language to the other
English uses a perfect tense, "have eaten", for life experience; Portuguese uses the simple past, "comi". In Portuguese the adjective agrees with the noun in gender and comes after it, while in English it stays the same and comes before the noun.
Example conversation
— Vamos num restaurante japonês?
— Shall we go to a Japanese restaurant?
— Vamos! Eu nunca comi comida japonesa.
— Let's! I've never eaten Japanese food.