ためしがない
Expresses that something has never once happened, judging from the speaker's past experience. It often carries a critical or exasperated tone and serves as grounds for predicting that it won't happen this time either.
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Common in everyday speech and writing when complaining about someone's habitual behavior or about something that never goes as hoped. The speaker's observation of a track record often leads into a conclusion or prediction, as in 〜ためしがないから、〜だろう. Unlike the neutral 〜たことがない, it stresses that it has not happened even once and implies disapproval or disappointment.
Learners sometimes attach it to the dictionary form, but it must follow the た-form, as in 守ったためしがない.
Do not use it for neutral statements of inexperience, such as never having visited a place; use 〜たことがない instead.
Note that it describes a consistent pattern over time, not a single missed occasion.
- ずじまいN1「ずじまい」attaches to the negative-stem form with 「ず」 (する→せず) and means something one wanted to do, should have done, or could have done ended up never being done. 「ためしがない」attaches to the た form and looks back on the past to say there has never been a single exception, so the two cannot be swapped.
- わけがないN3「わけがない」concludes from logic or common sense that something is 'impossible,' and can attach to verbs, adjectives, and nouns. 「ためしがない」only attaches to the た form of verbs and states, based on past facts, that something has 'never happened,' so the two generally cannot be interchanged.
- まいN2「まい」does not attach to the past form; it expresses the will of 'never will...' or the conjecture 'probably won't...' and leans toward written style. 「ためしがない」attaches to the た form and looks back on the past to say 'never once happened,' with a neutral register, so the two cannot be interchanged.
- べくもないN1「べくもない」attaches to the dictionary form of verbs and means something is fundamentally impossible due to circumstances (or beyond doubt / beyond comparison); it is written-style and combines with a limited set of verbs. 「ためしがない」attaches to the た form and looks back on the past to say something has never happened, so the two cannot be interchanged.
ためしがない states that, going by the past record, something has never once happened; ずじまい says that something ended up not happening in the end, whether intended or not (何もわからずじまいだった), and わけがない rejects something as logically impossible. まい expresses negative intention or negative conjecture (彼はまだ知るまい 'he probably doesn't know yet'), and べくもない says that doing the preceding verb is impossible (知るべくもない 'cannot possibly know').
