Is this sentence correct? 去年は日本へ行ったことがあります。


Is this sentence correct?

> 去年は日本へ行ったことがあります。




> 「[去年]{きょねん}は[日本]{にほん}へ[行]{い}ったことがあります。」

If I had to label this sentence as either 'correct' or 'incorrect' and
**_nothing in between_** , I would certainly go with 'incorrect'. At least,
this is not a sentence that a careful native speaker or writer would produce
in a natural setting.

> Problem #1: 「去年 **は** 」

To use 「は」 correctly with a time word, you need to be comparing two or more
time frames. If you are talking about where you went **_last year_** and where
you went **_the year before_** , for instance, you can use this 「は」.

Another correct usage of 「去年 **は** 」 is when you want to **_topicalize_**
"last year" and list the things that you did within that particular year.

For simply stating "I went to (place) last year.", however, we normally would
not use 「去年は」. We would just use 「去年」.

> Problem #2: 「行ったことがある」

「ことがある」 expresses one's past experience in doing something. The time frame is
between your birth and the present moment. In English, one might say "I have
been to China twice.", "Have you eaten crocodile meat before?", etc. That is
the general feeling of 「～～たことがある」.

To simply state that you did something, for instance, 'yesterday' or 'last
year', you would **_not_** use 「～～たことがある」. Instead, you would use the simple
past tense as in 「行った」,「[食]{た}べた」,「[見]{み}た」, etc.

So, the "correct" sentence meaning "I went to Japan last year." would be:

> 「去年日本に（or へ）行きました。」

**_Exceptions:_**

Native speakers occasionally DO USE 「～～たことがある」 **_in retrospect_** with a time
word when talking about something that one did at least a few years ago.

We might say: 「１０[年前]{ねんまえ}にハワイに行っ **たことがあります** が、とてもよかったです。」, and not many
people would think anything of it.

But only a very small group of people would say: 「去年ハワイに行ったことがあります。」

Practically no one would say 「去年 **は** ハワイに行ったことがあります。」. That would just sound
so unnatural coming from a native speaker.

