I understand forming the past tense like 'I have not been' but I'm unsure as
to how to phrase this as it is something that was true but now is not. If that
makes sense. It's the 'had' part that's confusing me. If anyone could clear
this up I would be very grateful. Thanks.

Edit: my attempt, as I understand past perfect does not exist in Japanese I
tried to do something that would be in English (roughly) 'before last year, I
have not gone to America'.

> Mae ni kyonen watashi wa Amerika ni ikimasen deshita.  
>  まえ に 去年 私は アメリカ に いきませんでした。

However I don't really know if this is correct (and if I'm missing a particle
after kyonen?)
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2016-04-28T10:33:12.607
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2016-04-28T20:39:46.110
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question
past
How to say 'I had never been before'
> I had never been to America before last year.  
>  去年まで私はアメリカに行ったことがありませんでした。
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2016-04-28T11:25:00.087
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2016-04-28T12:29:17.030
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answer
To elaborate on @zang ming jie's answer, a verb in past tense plus ことがある means
"to have experienced doing the verb". So

> アメリカに行ったことがある  
>  I have been to America  
>  アメリカに行ったことがない  
>  I have never been to America  
>  アメリカに行ったことがなかった  
>  I had never been to America
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2016-04-28T20:39:46.110
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answer