Kai
How is こともなかった used? It's been almost a year and I'm back to learning Japanese again.
I decided to read some raw manga on comico. 
I'm reading となりの席の小林さん. 
On the 3rd page of chapter 0,
there was a line I'm slightly confused.


話したこともなかった子だけど···

I feel like it means

"A child that doesn't usually talk, but..."

I know what 話した means. It's the past form of 話す which means speak, right? 

I also have an idea of how こと works but

But I don't really know what もなかった means or how does it work here in this sentence.

I really hope you can help me with this one.
Thank you!
May 21, 2018 2:16 PM
Comments · 3
3

The sentence means, "He/She was the child who I have never talked to, but..." or " I haven't ever talked to him/her before, but I.....".

I mean "もなかった" is almost equal to "ことがなかった"、but it emphasizes the person's experience, like

"ことさえも、なかった". 


I think this kind of expression adds the natural feeling to the conversation, but it's not easy to understand well for non-native Japanese people. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask me again.


Regards,


May 21, 2018
1
It's my pleasure.

日本語の勉強、がんばってくださいね。

May 23, 2018
1
Oh now I see. Your translation makes more sense. Thank you!
May 22, 2018