Why is this こと there?

Question

あなたが今まで行ったことのある観光地を紹介してください。

=> "Please present the places you have visited so far."

I think my translation should be correct and it wasn't much trouble to come up with it. However, I'm not really sure why there is

ことのある

Usually I would expect the construction た-form + ことが + ありました like 私は中国に住んだことがありました。

So what seems unusual to is the use of の instead of が and the use of present tense ある instead of past tense ありました.

Since the verbal complex "verb + ことのある" modifies the noun 観光地 I could imagine の acting in the same function as here:

子供の描いた絵です。 vs. 子供が書いた絵です。

I'm just a bit cautious with this analogy since in these 2 examples above, the modified noun is the subject. I only rarely encountered this use of の in my textbook so far and I can't remember a situation where this was done with the object of a sentence (as it is the case in the sentence in question), so I don't know if this interchangeability of の/が applies here too.

Concerning ある instead of ありました, well, I'm a bit clueless right now.^^ It's the main reason though that I suspect that ことのある might not be a variation of the た + ことが + ありました pattern but instead something else.^^

Answer 1

You are correct about the construction た＋ことがある but the particle が can change to の in relative clauses (as in your example) or in adnominal phrases (see below).

Therefore, a full sentence like 「私は東京へ行ったことがある。」 would change if part of it becomes a relative clause, like 「東京へ行ったことのある人はここにいますか。」.

The particle also changes when a phrase is modifying a noun. For example, the usual construction 「背が高い」 would become 「背の高い人」.　

In both cases, although it may be "correct" to use　の instead of が, I think you will hear native speakers not doing it sometimes, particularly in casual speech. It's a somewhat technical point, and these are often ignored in normal speech.