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Section 2-1: Inflecting example 待たされていました contradicts the causative formula

In the book causative defined as 五段未然形+せる/一段未然形+させる.

待つ is a 五段 verb, so its causative form should be 待たせる, and 連用形 of this should be 待たせ, therefore the verb should be 待たせていました.

Am I missing something here?

Can someone evaluate the explanation of this verb form. Is it correct or not?

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  • Can someone evaluate the explanation of this verb form. Is it correct or not? I skimmed over the text and to my poor knowledge it seems correct. However instead of making others read your text of choice it will be more beneficial to you to check other texts yourself - this way you will both be able to gain confidence in the text and perhaps find new useful perspectives on the material in question. – kroki Feb 14 '17 at 7:38
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The other answer has it all, but here's a step-by-step inference produced by GeekJDict:

geekjdict>> g 待たされていました
 待たされていました is the past form of 待たされています
  待たされています is the polite form of 待たされている
   待たされている is the continuous form of 待たされて
    待たされて is the て-form of 待たされた
     待たされた is the past form of 待たされる
      待たされる is the passive form of 待たす
       see plain 待たす t: v5s
       待たす is the colloquial form of 待たせる
        see causative 待たせる t: v1
        待たせる is the causative form of 待つ
         see plain 待つ t: v5t

So 待たす is the colloquial form of 待たせる. As other comment said, guidetojapanese.org is the best resource on Japanese grammar (and GeekJDict's grammar inference is based on it).

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  • なにこれすごい...... +1 – broken laptop Feb 12 '17 at 12:10
  • ^ bro, でも 待たされている is the continuous form of 待たされて 待たされて is the て-form of 待たされた 待たされた is the past form of 待たされる ってどうなん？「待たされている is the continuous form of またされる」で良くね？ せめて 待たされて is the て-form of 待たされた 待たされた is the past form of 待たされる は「待たされて is the て-form of 待たされる」でええやん。なんで過去形入ってくんの – Chocolate♦ Feb 12 '17 at 23:37
  • I was under the impression that て-form is　連用形 of つ and is not a form of た as geekjdict suggests. – user1602 Feb 13 '17 at 3:50
  • @Shoko, user1602 you both are correct. However GeekJDict chooses to show conjugation sub-steps because it's easier to see how, for instance, て-form is constructed from past tense (especially for godan verbs), even if no actual past is involved (GeekJDict follows "minimum information principle", so for instance て-form rules do not repeat past tense rules). It's a machine output, it still requires human to interpret. – kroki Feb 13 '17 at 7:40
  • The grammar.rule file is composed by a human - not machine, and can be modified to reflect the language reality and not rely on recursion for た – user1602 Feb 13 '17 at 19:06
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待たせた = Made (someone) wait.
待たされた = (someone)Was made to wait.

When the verb becomes causative,
待つ -> 待たす

When the verb changes to passive mode,
待つ -> 待たれる

When a verb becomes causative and then make it passive,
待つ -> 待たす -> 待たされる

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  • Could you provide a reference to the causative formula (未然形+す). I was not aware of it at all, and would like to learn more about it. – user1602 Feb 12 '17 at 6:19
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    @user1602 it is the Shortened Causative Form, it is not very used, I just used it for simplicity and because the example you gave seems to be the Shortened causative-passive form. You can take a look at guidetojapanese.org/learn/grammar/causepass Best website for learning grammar I even found. – stack reader Feb 12 '17 at 6:27
  • 「[持]{も}つ」？「[待]{ま}つ」？なんか混じってるみたい・・ – Chocolate♦ Feb 12 '17 at 6:29
  • @Shoko 恥ずかしいな。ありがとうございました。 – stack reader Feb 12 '17 at 6:31
  • "Progressive" was not even mentioned once... – l'électeur Feb 12 '17 at 8:24

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