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, and ‘Japanese’ comes before the noun.
- 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 Vietnamese — “Tôi chưa bao giờ ăn đồ ăn Nhật.”
In “Tôi chưa bao giờ ăn đồ ăn Nhật.” ‘chưa bao giờ’ (never, so far) carries the experience; the verb ‘ăn’ (eat) does not change. ‘Nhật’ (Japanese) follows ‘đồ ăn’ (food).
- Tôi
- pronoun'I', telling about an experience
- chưa
- adverb'not yet'; unlike không, it may still happen
- bao
- adverbfirst syllable of bao giờ
- giờ
- adverbchưa bao giờ = never, up to now
- ăn
- verbăn · tense: unmarked · 'eat'; chưa bao giờ marks the experience
- đồ
- noun'thing'; đồ ăn = food
- ăn
- nounhere part of the noun đồ ăn
- Nhật
- proper noun'Japan(ese)', after the noun
English × Vietnamese — What changes from one language to the other
English changes the verb and adds ‘have’; Vietnamese just adds ‘chưa bao giờ’. The nationality word goes before the noun in English and after it in Vietnamese.
Example conversation
— Tôi chưa bao giờ ăn đồ ăn Nhật.
— I've never eaten Japanese food.
— Vậy tối nay đi luôn, mình biết một quán ngon.
— Then let's go tonight, I know a good place.