The7thSamurai
Master of the Universe
- 4 Feb 2005
- 765
- 26
- 38
て行く and て来る have bugged me for a while. I just can't seem to understand when to use them. I'm not talking about motion verbs like 持っていく or 連れてくる, I'm talking about when you suppose to describe a process starting or ending.
I'll start with て来る. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar defines it as 'an auxiliary verb which indicates the beginning of some process or continuation of some action up to a certain point of time'.
I think I understand the first funtion (begining of a process), but the second one stumps me. It gives the example sentence, 私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んできた, meaning 'up to now, I've been reading various Japanese history books'. But my question is, why would you need or want to slap てきた on the end? Wouldn't ~を読んでいる suffice? I can see how this relates to the above definition (continutation of some action) but I thought ている did just that? So what exactly is the difference between:
私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んできた, and
私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んでいる?
To the first funtion of てくる - indicating the beginning of a process, it gives the example sentence あの子はこの頃ずいぶんきれいになってきたね, and gives the English translation as 'that girl has become very pretty lately, hasn't she?'. This translation seems to contradict the definition they've given, in that the girl has become pretty (action completed). I would have thought a more accurate translation would be 'that girl has started to become very pretty lately, hasn't she', as this gives the impression that the girl will become even more pretty.
Another things that I've found strange is that in every example sentence both in my grammar book, and in my text book, this form is only ever found in the past tense (i.e. てきた or てきました). Wonder why that is?
In my text post I'll talk about て行く
I'll start with て来る. A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar defines it as 'an auxiliary verb which indicates the beginning of some process or continuation of some action up to a certain point of time'.
I think I understand the first funtion (begining of a process), but the second one stumps me. It gives the example sentence, 私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んできた, meaning 'up to now, I've been reading various Japanese history books'. But my question is, why would you need or want to slap てきた on the end? Wouldn't ~を読んでいる suffice? I can see how this relates to the above definition (continutation of some action) but I thought ている did just that? So what exactly is the difference between:
私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んできた, and
私はいろいろな日本の歴史書を読んでいる?
To the first funtion of てくる - indicating the beginning of a process, it gives the example sentence あの子はこの頃ずいぶんきれいになってきたね, and gives the English translation as 'that girl has become very pretty lately, hasn't she?'. This translation seems to contradict the definition they've given, in that the girl has become pretty (action completed). I would have thought a more accurate translation would be 'that girl has started to become very pretty lately, hasn't she', as this gives the impression that the girl will become even more pretty.
Another things that I've found strange is that in every example sentence both in my grammar book, and in my text book, this form is only ever found in the past tense (i.e. てきた or てきました). Wonder why that is?
In my text post I'll talk about て行く