How to ask 'Have you ever done something'?

[maikumaiku]

Hi there,

I'm writing a short email to my friend in Japanese and I would like to ask the question 'Have you ever played table football?' (The pub we are going to has table football/bar football/fussball for those wondering!)

So far I have:

テーブルサッカをしましたか?

But this means 'did you play table soccer?'. I'd like to ask my friend if it's something he's ever done.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Mike

[becki_kanou]

The way to ask about experience is to use the phrase 「Xをしたことはありますか？」or informally 『Xをしたことある？』
So in your case テーブルサッカーをしたことはありますか？

[maikumaiku]

Thanks very much for the explanation, I understand it completely.

Cheers!

[Shiroisan]

The way to ask about experience is to use the phrase 「Xをしたことはありますか？」or informally 『Xをしたことある？』
So in your case テーブルサッカーをしたことはありますか？

Not to be pedantic, but my textbook says to use が, not は.

[becki_kanou]

I wondered which would be better, but my resident native speaker says both are ok. Perhaps Nilecatさん (or another native speaker) would be kind enough to weigh in?

[maikumaiku]

The way to ask about experience is to use the phrase 「Xをしたことはありますか？」or informally 『Xをしたことある？』
So in your case テーブルサッカーをしたことはありますか？

Not to be pedantic, but my textbook says to use が, not は.

I noticed that too, I went with が as it would seem to fit. Thanks very much for the responses though.

Mike

[furrykef]

I'm not native-like (let alone actually native) by a long shot, but with this construction, my instinct is to use が when bringing it up out of nowhere, and は when it seems like a natural progression in the conversation ("Say, speaking of table soccer, have you ever played it?").