3

聞いたことない！

I'm still confused about the meaning of こと. But I think it means "this," "that," "about," and maybe "it."

So, this sentence could be translated as: "I've never heard of this/that/it!"

But I'm not very sure ...

Improve this question
1

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
6

The structure Past verb + こと + ある/ない means that you Ever/Never Performed a given "action".

Examples:

日本に行ったことない。Nihon ni itta koto nai. - I have never been to Japan.

Now a conversation about two people talking about Nattou (Japanese fermented beans)

Person1 - 納豆を食べたことある？Nattou wo tabeta kot aru? - Have you ever eaten Nattou?

Person 2 - はい、納豆を食べたことあるよ！Hai, Nattou wo tabeta koto aru yo! - Yes, I have already eaten Nattou!

So, 聞いたことない probably means "I have never heard about that."!

If you want to be a bit literal "The thing of having heard that does not exist"

Improve this answer
2
  • 4
    Hello. In formal Japanese, is there a が between こと and ない or ある, or ありません and あります?
    – BIG-95
    Jun 29, 2018 at 19:25
  • 1
    @BIG-95 that's debatable, I used to believe that yes, we should not omit any particles in formal speech, but i've seen people correct me when I wrote something like 行ったことがある to 行ったことある. I guess removing the が removes the focus from 行った and then the focus is the whole sentence. That maybe would be a good question for the site :)
    – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
    Jun 29, 2018 at 20:59

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .