When to use it
Use it when someone invites you for sushi and it would be your first time.
The sentence in English (“I've never eaten Japanese food.”)
In “I've never eaten Japanese food.” the present perfect (‘have’ + ‘eaten’) marks a life experience.
- 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 Tamil (“நான் ஜப்பானிய உணவை ஒருபோதும் சாப்பிட்டதில்லை.”)
In “நான் ஜப்பானிய உணவை ஒருபோதும் சாப்பிட்டதில்லை.” the verb ‘சாப்பிட்டதில்லை’ (have never eaten) fuses the past form with ‘இல்லை’ (not), and ‘ஒருபோதும்’ (ever) strengthens it.
- நான்
- pronoun'I'
- ஜப்பானிய
- adjective'Japanese', before the noun
- உணவை
- nounuṇavu 'food' + object -ai
- ஒருபோதும்
- adverb'ever'; with a negative, 'never'
- சாப்பிட்டதில்லை
- verbcāppiṭu · tense: past, negative · cāppiṭṭatu 'having eaten' + illai: have not eaten
What changes from one language to the other (English × Tamil)
English changes the verb and adds ‘have’; Tamil adds a negative ending to a verbal noun.
Example conversation
— நான் ஜப்பானிய உணவை ஒருபோதும் சாப்பிட்டதில்லை.
— I've never eaten Japanese food.
— அப்படியென்றால் இந்த வார இறுதியில் போகலாம்!
— Then let's go this weekend!