～ことがある: "There are times when..."

Introduction

I know learning Japanese is awesome fun and all, but are there ever times when you just... can't even? Well, perhaps I can help by teaching how to say "There are times when I just can't even" in Japanese!

And that's what today's lesson is all about.

There are times when I just need some

Structure (heh)

• 

  dictionary form

  not conjugated; the form of a word as you would find it in a dictionary (e.g. {食|た}べる, おいしい).

  verb/ negative, casual form

  the negative form of the casual/plain form, can also be called ない-form (e.g. {食|た}べる → {食|た}べない, {飲|の}む → {飲|の}まない).

  verbことがある

• 

  dictionary form

  not conjugated; the form of a word as you would find it in a dictionary (e.g. {食|た}べる, おいしい).

  い-adjective/negative, casual form

  the negative form of the casual/plain form, can also be called ない-form (e.g. {食|た}べる → {食|た}べない, {飲|の}む → {飲|の}まない).

  い-adjeciveことがある

• 

  Nounのことがある

• 

  な-adjectiveなことがある/な-adjectiveじゃない・ではないことがある

  Example:
  → ピザを食たべないことがある。
  "There are times when I don't eat pizza.”

〜ことがある is pretty much always translated as "There are times..." or "Sometimes...", which I'll admit is actually a bit weird. After all, where the heck is "time" in 「ことがある」? Well, it may help to remember 〜たことがある, which is used to talk about our past experiences.