~ことがある for more than one thing

Question

In the Genki II textbook, there is a phrase that goes like this:

うめぼし，のりなどを見たことも聞いたこともありませんでした。

Now, I understand that this roughly means that "I've never seen or heard of pickled plums or nori algae.", but I was wondering why there is no が particle in the sentence.

The "basic" structure sentence for having the experience of something is

~ことがあります。

Since there are two things that are being referred to, I would have written it something like this:

うめぼし，のりなどを見たことも聞いたことがありませんでした。

I know this probably isn't correct, but can someone explain in to me? Why is there no が particle in the original sentence?

Answer 1

〜も〜もない or　〜も〜もありません

is a very commonly used phrase to express two negative verb consecutively. In English it's like saying 'Neither have I seen it nor heard of it.' Although it doesn't always have to be negative

あれもこれも〜

Roughly translate to 'This and that are all...',「も」is used when you want to group few things together and sounds more inclusive. On the other hand「が」 directly points at a single thing/object. And lastly...

〜も〜がありません

As you mentioned is an improper use of 「が」in your example, but

今日も時間がありません ("I don't have the time today too")

Is correct since が points at the noun 'time'. I guess it is a completely different use case, but it is an useful phrase.

Answer 2

The simple answer is that も can replace が when using いる/ある constructions like that.

犬がいる。猫がいる。　　

犬も猫もいる。