Timeline for すでに - Already completed or in the process of being completed?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 3, 2021 at 8:50 | comment | added | InTheProgress | @wanwandrew It's a little bit complex. Easy to understand, but takes time to grasp. Shortly, it's about events and states. Events happen at specific time and we focus on occurrence within timeline. States describe current condition and we focus on general situation. For example, "I ate today" (eating happened), "I've eaten" (my stomach is full). Generally we use the latter type when situation brings some present/future related result or we talk about experience. Despite habitual are often used with ている, the same is possible in non-past too. Difference in how much it affects present situation. | |
| Sep 3, 2021 at 1:19 | comment | added | Leebo | Without going into too much detail, an example of when you would use できた would be when something has just finished and very little time has passed. When dinner is ready and you are announcing that you just finished you would use できた and not できている. There's are more distinctions, but you can find questions about those in the search. | |
| Sep 2, 2021 at 22:55 | comment | added | wanwandrew | I see, now. This was quite insightful. Thank you. HOWEVER, if this was the case, then what would the purpose of 出来た be? | |
| Sep 2, 2021 at 22:28 | comment | added | Eiríkr Útlendi | @wanwandrew, as Leebo says. The verb できる in this context describes a change in state -- from unfinished, to ready and done. State-change verbs in the ～ている conjugation commonly express that "the state has changed, and the new resulting state is". See also this other post on a different question, describing this kind of aspect in more detail, for the verb [覚える]{おぼえる}. | |
| Sep 2, 2021 at 22:01 | comment | added | Leebo | ている for a verb expressing status like this means "the state changed in the past and it continues to be in that state now". So it means it's done, not in the process of being prepared. | |
| S Sep 2, 2021 at 20:13 | review | First answers | |||
| Sep 2, 2021 at 20:20 | |||||
| S Sep 2, 2021 at 20:13 | history | answered | wanwandrew | CC BY-SA 4.0 |