Questions tagged [tense]
時制. Questions relating to that property of verbs which allows them to refer to events in the past, present, or future.
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What is the tense of 「卒業して5年になる」?
I was studying the te-form in depth and found out that it can be used as a starting point (起点) and a Japanese friend of mine told me that it is the same as ～てから; just an omission of から. It seems to be ...
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Why is おもだった in past-tense?
In
すでにおもだった犯罪者の名前は書き尽くし徐々に悪人のレベルも下げてる
Here おも means "important", so おもだった犯罪者の名前 means "important criminal's names". But why is もだった in the past tense? Instead of:
...
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Tense of sentences ending with のだ such as 楽しかったんだ
From what I can find,
楽しかったんだ
is considered to be in the past tense, which confuses me.
I would have thought that の nominalized the preceding phrase, and the sentences as a whole was then placed in ...
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Why are conflicting verb tenses allowed in usage of なら
In https://japanesetest4you.com/japanese-language-proficiency-test-jlpt-n4-grammar-exercise-7/ I encountered the following sentence:
父は何でも作れたんだ。
戸棚が必要なら、父が作ってくれた。
If I were to translate this into ...
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The tense of osagashi
In the sentence "nanika osagashi desu ka?" (Are you looking for something), in which tense is "osagashi"? Why is it not osagashimasu?
user56721
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Any differences between 「学生の時」 and 「学生だった時」?
They seem to mean the same, although I hear 「学生の時」 much more often.
Another example I'm unsure of is: 「犬が病気(の・だった)時、病院に連れていきました。」 "I took the dog to a vet when it was sick." Are both options ...
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Does 「決めることにしています」 = 「決めます」?
In this NHK News Easy article, the final sentence says:
豊明市は職員たちに意見を聞いて、この働き方をこれからも続けるか決めることにしています。
After asking a native, a good translation for the second phrase would apparently be "[Toyoake ...
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Asking about invitation/desire in basic tense, vs. specific patterns?
When it comes to asking questions, specifically about invitation and want/desire, I've come across sentences that avoid using specific patterns (ませんか/ましょうか, or たい/ほしい), and just use basic future tense ...
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「かいてくれていた」- Does it have to mean "was drawing"?
In Chapter 3 of Yotsuba-to, Yotsuba wakes up and finds a picture of herself, that Fuuka drew and left there while she was sleeping. Yotsuba exclaims: 「ふーかがよつばかいてくれてた!」
Any natural-sounding English ...
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Negative form of お腹が空きました
I understand that お腹が空きました means "I am hungry" since its literal translation would be "My stomach has become empty". Meanwhile, お腹が空きます is closer to "I get hungry" as in ...
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What is the difference between 冷える and 冷えている?
I came across the following example sentence in a dictionary.
今晩は冷えますね。It’s cold tonight, isn’t it?
I thought 冷えます, being a verb, would mean "will become cold". But the translation above ...
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When does てきた take place? Is it representing an ongoing change or not?
Quick Notice: For many months now I've been struggling with てくる and it's exact meaning when dealing with time flow and indication of change. I do however, understand, when it is used with movement or ...
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Can the past progressive tense ever "overlap" into the present time?
I know that the tense of Japanese subordinate clauses is always relative to the time the main clause happens (which is different than in English). But consider the following:
子供が[昼寝]{ひるね}をしていた
...
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the use of した to modify nouns
Recently I came across this phrase:
血液型に関係したことって、日本では、すごく人気がある
Why is 関係した in the past and not in the present? In this case, is there any difference between them?
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This sentence 「君は何かに足をかじられたんだね」 looks really weird
I know the meaning of
「君は何かに足をかじられたんだね」
is "Something has bitten your leg" but is this sentence grammatically correct? (Probably yes because it's quoted from a book...)
But for me this ...
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Why is しない used for a past event?
植野：ちょっとからかってた的な…ことはあったかも
将也：まあ一応。僕もやめとけとは言ったんですけどね。聞かなかったし
石田：お前も一緒にやってたじゃん！女子なんてすげぇ悪口言ってたでしょ。ねえ！特に(植野)と(川井)が
川井：ひどい…。私そんなことしないよ。どうして…。石田くんひどいよ
Everyone's putting the blame on 石田 for bullying.
I ...
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Meaning of 殴り描き and the use of 'would'
I think I get most of this tweet
https://twitter.com/hanjuku_monme/status/1544706459556265985
今日（昨日）からメイドインアビス2期が始まると知ったのでファプタ殴り描き
"I knew that the second season of Made in Abyss would begin ...
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How should we tell an imaginary story or situation in Japanese?
In English, when we tell an imaginary story or situation, we use subjective mood, or use simply present or past tenses accordingly.
I wonder how we should tell an imaginary story or situation in ...
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Difference between イライラする and イライラしている
I already know that the ている expresses a state after an action ended, rather than a continuous aspect in some verbs, but in some contexts I wonder why the natives would opt for する instead of している.
“...
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なってる versus なる. Who is this sentence talking about?
The younger sister is worried about dog attacks. The older sister says this:
「そんなに心配することないわよ。もうどっかに行っちゃっていなくなってるわよ。」
There's no need to worry so much. You'll reach the point where you end up not ...
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Why 広がる前 isn't 広がった前 in this sentence
In this NHK Easy article there's the sentence:
しかし1年{ねん}に3000万{まん}人{にん}以上{いじょう}が来{き}ていたウイルスが広{ひろ}がる前{まえ}のときのようには、すぐに戻{もど}りません。
If I remove the part I'm having trouble with:
しかし1年{ねん}に3000万{まん}人{にん}...
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How to ask about someone's opinion regarding the future?
I have a question. I wanna ask:
"Do You think in the near future/from now on more people will be learning Japanese?".
What is the best way to ask that? I have come up with two ideas:
...
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その店で去年{○働いていた/×働いている}男性がテレビに出た。 - why is that?
According to this website (I think it is 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック), if there are no time adverbs in an adjective clause, you have to use ていた or ている to mean an action in the past.
However, if a time ...
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If a time adverb is used in an adjective clause, you have to use ていた instead of ている - does this rule apply to normal verbs?
According to this website (I think it is 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック), if a time adverb is used in an adjective clause, you have to use ていた.
https://learn-the-basics-of-japanese.blogspot.com/p/s71-1-123a1-...
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Why "We've worked" can't be in the past?
On Duolingo with the phrase "We've worked at this bakery since twenty eleven."
It doesn't accept 私たちは２０１１年からこのパン屋で働いていました. It says the correct answer is 私たちは2011年からこのパン屋で働いています
Why can't I ...
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終わる to mean closed shop
Is it a natural or at least used way to say "closed" like in that example, using the verb 終わる ?
A : 今7時ですが、スーパーは終わりましたか。
B : いいえ、8時まで開いているはずですよ。
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What is the difference between していたりします and したりしています
For example
歌を歌ったりしていますか？
vs
歌を歌っていたりしますか？
Also for a sentence like this:
あなた、私が盗んだと思っていたりします？
vs
あなた、私が盗んだと思ったりしています？
I've asked a native speaker and apparently the second sentence seems more ...
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How does these sentences work in regard to tenses when translated into natural English?
Source
月曜の夜には、そこは閉まってる。
The source sentence says: “On monday nights it was closed.”
But why not 閉まっていた then? Since it happened in the past.
I think 閉まった might also work to describe that the place ...
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Katta in nagamete itakatta
So, I was trying to make a translation, and I found nagamete itakatta. I thought it was referring to the te form and the past tense of iru combined, then there was katta, which I also thought was past ...
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Why is it おいしかったです and not おいしかったでした? [duplicate]
There are a few other questions related to this, but they do not explain the why of the matter.
As I understand it です is present tense while でした is past tense. As such, I would (wrongly) intuit to say ...
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“ている” usage related question
Are “どこに行くの” and “どこに行っているの” both correct?
If I regard “ている” in this sentence as “progressive tense”, why is it that I have seen people mostly say 行く?
Also, can the ている also be used when talking about ...
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Could the “ていない” in “絶対無理って言ってない？” be interpreted as past?
“絶対無理って言ってない？” from context I would translate it as “didn’t you say it was impossible?”, but I just can’t wrap my head around the grammar. How would “って言ってなかった？” or “って言わなかった？” change the meaning?
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Past tense when noun clause is in the middle of the sentence
For this sentence, how does past tense apply with noun clauses
Mr Suzuki was writer who wanted to live near the forest
Do I say
鈴木さんは森林の近くに住みたい作家でした。
or
鈴木さんは森林の近くに住みたかった作家でした。
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Interpretations of できる and できている
Here are two lines (台詞) from different animes.
女の子って、何でできてる？ (放浪息子)
でも、それ、じゃ赤ちゃんってどうしてできるんだろう (苺ましまろ)
I'm wondering why the verb できる (make) appears in the different tenses but it's expressing same ...
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Why 言うから instead of 言ったから?
これも結局 理沙が言うから 買っちゃったんだよね
I only bought this because Risa talked me into it.
Why is it not using the past tense: 理沙が言ったから ? Not only was Risa saying this in the past, but even the resulting action ...
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What is the correct tense for を生み?
一つの時代の積み重ねが新たな伝説を生み、ここにまた一人のヒーローが誕生した。ロックマン (source)
Here are two translations I have:
The culmination of one era gives birth to a new legend, and here again another hero is born.
The efforts of an ...
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Don't understand past tense used as present perfect in Japanese
I'm reading a Japanese beginners book in which I have found a 'present perfect' sentence for the first time, but I don't understand it very well:
The sentence
見たことがある女の人がいます
according to my book, is ...
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Helping verb きた vs. きていた
During studies I recently stumbled over this sentence:
大きな犬がこっちに走ってきたので、びっくりした。
My question is why きた is used in 走ってきた. I would have guessed it should be a きていた, as びっくりした is past tense and 走って ...
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What tense to use for verbs describing abstract actions?
Here are 3 examples of 重きを置く.
昔は徳育に重きを置いた。People used to attach weight to moral culture. [斉藤和英大辞典]
聞くことと話すことに重きを置いた言語獲得の体系 system of language acquisition focusing intensively on listening and ...
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A counter example to the rule on tense in relative clauses?
In the comments to this question I learnt that
明日、林さんに会うときに、この本を返そう
and
明日、林さんに会ったときに、この本を返そう
have the same meaning, although 会った is more common.
With my current understanding, that the tense in a ...
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相対テンス in 名詞修飾 is also true when it comes to アスペクト（テイル) or other forms like 〜てしまう, etc?
According to 初級を教える人のための日本語文法ハンドブック, in Japanese, 名詞修飾 is mostly 相対テンス, and sometimes 絶対テンス if that is the only way where the context can make sense.
However, it says it only discusses テンス, but not ...
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onomatopoeia＋した as modifiers [duplicate]
Examples like あっさりした味、ちょっとした風邪、きちんとした身なり have onomatopoeia＋した as modifiers. There do not seem to be examples with した replaced with する. Is this observation correct? If so, is there a reason why した is ...
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「そこで泳ぐことがありますか」or 「そこで泳いだことがありますか」
I'm asked to complete the following sentence with the appropriate inflected form of the verb:
The book provided a translation: "Have you ever had a swim there?" This indicates experience as ...
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ことにする tenses nuances [duplicate]
What are the nuances related to tense change about these sentences :
早く起きることにしました。
早く起きることにします。
早く起きることにしています。
Do the intensity or moment of the decision is different for each form ?
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Use of the past for a request? [duplicate]
In One Punch Man, Genos says ちょっと待った instead of ちょっと待って when asking Saitama to wait. Why?
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Point of view in Japanese writing, verb tenses and temporal location? [duplicate]
A little while ago, I asked this question about the Japanese point of view: How do you identify the point of view in Japanese (for novels)? The answer seemed to be that you need to watch for the ...
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Is it not needed to use an adjective in the ta-form when paired with 時 as a temporal adverbial clause?
According to Essential Japanese Grammar by Masahiro Tanimori and Eriko Sato (page 352), we can pair adjectives in the ta-form with 時 to form a temporal adverbial clause. Strangely, the book doesn't ...
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Using だった for things that haven't changed
I'm a little confused by the tenses in the following monologue taken from the beginning of a manga chapter:
黒い服が好きだった
昏い闇の中に居ても
安心して溶け込んでいられるから
この年になっても私は
中二病を拗らせたままでいる
Now, in my native ...
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になりました vs になっています
Can someone explain the difference between these two to me?
長い間日本語を勉強しなくて、下手になりました
長い間日本語を勉強しなくて、下手になっています
The way I understand it currently is that the first one indicates that at some point in ...
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