波紋ができていた

zuotengdazuo

Sempai

8 Dec 2019

830

19

• 7 Apr 2020

• #1

Hi. Please have a look at the underlined part?

What is the difference between できていた and できた?
By the way, can we use できている here?
Thank you.

 

bentenmusume

原点回帰

Fifteen-year veteran

12 Oct 2004

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1,356

• 7 Apr 2020

• #2

If it were できた, it would sound as if the ripple pattern in question formed at the moment the narrator looked at the sky, rather having already been there.

It's the same as 家に着くと、窓が開いていた versus 開いた. The former describes a situation where the window is already open when the speaker gets there. The latter would mean the window had been shut before and suddenly opened in that moment.

It could be できている if you wanted to shift the tense to the present, e.g. to create that sense of immediacy or what-have-you as has been mentioned throughout this discussion.

 

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Moderator

Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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4,926

• 7 Apr 2020

• #3

I'm curious again whether you had any problem with まるでゴーストタウンのようになっていた in the same page. Can you get the difference between なっていた and なった, and can you judge yourself if you can use なっている there?

 

zuotengdazuo

Sempai

8 Dec 2019

830

19

• 7 Apr 2020

• Thread starter
• #4

Thank you both. I see.

Toritoribe said:

I'm curious again whether you had any problem with まるでゴーストタウンのようになっていた in the same page. Can you get the difference between なっていた and なった, and can you judge yourself if you can use なっている there?

Click to expand...

Yes, I do have problems with that. You are sharp-eyed. Originally I wanted to ask it later. Now that you mention it, can I think benten-san's explanation also apply to まるでゴーストタウンのようになっていた? When the protagonist looked at the 大通り, it had already been (in a state of being) like a ghost town?

 

bentenmusume

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Fifteen-year veteran

12 Oct 2004

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• 7 Apr 2020

• #5

Yes, it's the same. If it were なった, that would suggest that it transformed from not-a-ghost-town into a ghost town at/in that very moment, which of course would be a very unusual thing (and something that the author would probably choose to describe in more dramatic terms if that were the intended meaning).

 

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

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Fifteen-year veteran

22 Feb 2008

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• 7 Apr 2020

• #6

Yes, and therefore まるでゴーストタウンのようになった doesn't fit the preceding clause しかし当然のごとく人の姿はなく、, which suggests the state "a ghost town" already existed previously.
cf.
しかし突然人の姿はなくなり、まるでゴーストタウンのようになった。

 

zuotengdazuo

Sempai

8 Dec 2019

830

19

• 7 Apr 2020

• Thread starter
• #7

Thank you both again.