Recently,I started helping a friend to learn Japanese. I myself have only been studying it for a few years, so of course I'm no expert
My friend asked me whether it was ok to say 1.(Something)『は』食べたことがあります as well as 2.(Something)『を』食べたことがあります
In textbooks, it is usually given as the latter, and the 『は』and『が』in sentence 1. are contradictory I feel,so I told her to stick with no.2.
I would like to know if I'm correct/not in assuming that no.1 is irregular? Also,I'm curious as to whether there are any cases where 『は』can be used in similar instances? i.e. with the 〜たことがある structure (or maybe 〜たことはある?) Not exactly the most direct question (haha),so I'll be most greatful to anyone who can maybe provide some explanation Thank you
From what I always remember, が goes after the actual subject of the sentence and は gets used everywhere else, except if you're using 敬語 and/or there's a full moon and/or the Emperor sneezed after dinner. Then the rules inexplicably change and any foreigners within a 500-mile radius stop caring either way
I'm pretty sure that grammatically both are correct. It's more conventional to use を than は/が but depending on what you want to emphasize, either can be used.
of course in conversation it's pretty typical to just leave off the particle anyways.
but here's an example of each sentence:
これを食べたことある? (have you (ever) eaten this?)
これは食べたことある? (as far as this is concerned, have you (ever) eaten it?)
it's also not uncommon in conversation for a pause to be inserted between the は and 食べたことある
typically, however, you would use を to indicate that (something) is the object that is being referred to by the verb (食べる)
<As you know, it is same thing as between は and が. →
This means the understanding of the difference between はandが
can be used to the explanation of difference beween はandを.
I meant it.
Read "Making Sense of Japanese" by Jay Rubin. You will never have a doubt in your mind about when to use は and が again.
For the record, both sentences are correct, but they mean something slightly different. 「SOMETHINGを食べることがありません」 means generically, "I have never eaten SOMETHING." 「SOMETHINGは食べることがありません」 is putting the emphasis on SOMETHING as the new topic of conversation (contrasting with something else). For example, I have eaten many foods in my lifetime, but when it comes to SOMETHING, I have never eaten that.
Similarly, the 「は」placed before the「こと」in「SOMETHINGを食べることはありません」sounds like "As for eating SOMETHING, that is something I've never done."
Again, the book I recommended explains it much better (as well as some other major sticking points for English-speaking Japanese learners, but that is the one I found the most useful). Hope it helps!