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I tried to find this answer in other questions in order to not duplicate it, but i couldn't find one answer for that.

So I was trying to make the following sentence

There's a ramen restaurant in my town. My friend said that there it is delicious, so I want to go there.

People on hellotalk helped to make my sentence more natural, like changing レストラン　for 屋, and the sentence came out like this:

僕の街にラーメン屋があります。僕の友達がおいしいと言っていたので、そのラーメン屋に行きたい。

I understood the whole sentence but one part "言っていた" this is supposed to mean that my friend told me something right. I just don't get the whole "verb te form+いた".

Can you help me with that? Thanks in advance.

istrasci
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Felipe Chaves de Oliveira
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  • Related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3122/when-is-v%e3%81%a6%e3%81%84%e3%82%8b-the-continuation-of-action-and-when-is-it-the-continuation-of-state?noredirect=1&lq=1 – user3856370 Sep 19 '16 at 18:41
  • Probably related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/14764/whats-the-difference-between-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A8%E8%A8%80%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F-and-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A8%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F And, these pages might help: http://www.alc.co.jp/jpn/article/faq/03/58.html ・ http://nihongodaybyday.blogspot.jp/2010/01/vs.html 「他の人（第三者）が言ったことを第二者に伝える場合には、「言って(い)た」を使います。」 – chocolate Sep 19 '16 at 23:46
  • 友達がおいしい My friend is tasty? Should が really be here? – Grallak Sep 21 '16 at 09:12
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    You should parse it as 「友達が『おいしい。』と言っていた。」= "My friend said '(It's ) tasty'." – chocolate Sep 21 '16 at 09:56

2 Answers2

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"verb te form + いた"

～ていた has several meanings/usages, which include:

  • A continuous action in the past (Past progressive tense) -- for action verbs

    • 彼が来たとき、私はテレビを見ていた。I was watching TV when he came.
    • そのころ、私はピアノを弾いていた。I was playing piano around that time.

  • A state in the past -- for verbs that describe changes in state, eg 死ぬ, 知る, 持つ, 結婚する etc.

    • 彼は死んでいた。 He was dead.
      (Not "He was dying." 彼は死んだ would be "He died.")
    • 彼は車を持っていた。 He had a car.
      (He was in the state of having a car, not in the middle of the action of having a car. 車を持った would indicate the action of having/getting a car.)
    • 彼女は結婚していた。 She was married.
      (彼女は結婚した would be "She got married.")

  • An action that occurred before another action occurred in the past (Something similar to the past perfect tense in English)

    • 駅に着くと、もう電車は出発していた。
      The train had already left when I got to the station.
    • 彼が来たときには、私は宿題を終えていた。
      I had finished my homework when / by the time he came.
    • パーティはすでに始まっていた。
      The party had already begun.

And, in your example:

  • In reported speech (especially in conversation) -- When you tell someone what another person has said to you.
    • 山田さんは、東京に行くと言っていたよ。(≂ 行くそうだよ。)
      Yamada-san said / I heard Yamada-san say that he was going to Tokyo.
      (rather than 山田さんは、東京に行くと言ったよ。)　
    • 彼はなんと言っていましたか？ -- 今日は来ないと言っていました。(≂ 来ないそうです。)
      What did he say? -- He said he would not come today.
      (rather than 彼はなんと言いましたか？ -- 今日は来ないと言いました。)
    • ニュースで、大きな地震があったって言ってたよ。
      I heard on TV news that there was a big earthquake.

僕の街にラーメン屋があります。僕の友達がおいしいと言っていたので、そのラーメン屋に行きたい。

Here, おいしいと言っていたので is more natural than おいしいと言ったので, since it's reported speech. This is like "I heard my friend say..." or "My friend told me..."

I think it'd be even more natural to say it this way:

僕の街にはラーメン屋があります。(僕の)友達がおいしいと言っていたので、そのラーメン屋に行きたいです。

  • Add the topical は. 「僕の街には～～」
  • Leave out the second 僕の. It's obvious whose friend you're talking about here.
  • Add です at the end, since you used polite あります in the first sentence.

  • Alternatively, you could say 行きたいと思っています。 or 行ってみたいです。

    　

chocolate
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  • Could you please explain or elaborate on why you used 着く rather than 着いた in your example "駅に着くと、もう電車は出発していた"? – G-Cam Sep 21 '16 at 12:36
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    @G-Cam The conjunctive particle と follows the dictionary form verb, so you say 「着く+と」(when/if ~ arrive), not 「*着いた+と」. If you used たら (= the hypothetical form of the auxiliary verb た), then you'd say 「着い+たら」. – chocolate Sep 21 '16 at 15:41
  • Thanks!!! One question, when "quotting" someone speech or thought, what's the difference between と and って ? – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira Sep 23 '16 at 19:13
  • って is more colloquial than と. E.g. 「友達がおいしいと言っていたので・・・」-> more casually/colloquially:「友達がおいしいって言ってたから・・・」 – chocolate Sep 24 '16 at 01:26
  • sorry for the continuous trouble, but can you explain me the difference between 見ていた and 見てた? Is it any different or removing the い just makes it little more colloquial? – Felipe Chaves de Oliveira Sep 27 '16 at 03:45
  • @FelipeOliveira Yes, 見てた is a colloquial way of saying/pronouncing 見ていた. The い in the subsidiary verb (～て)いる often drops in conversation. Other examples: 見ておく->見とく (dropping "e" sound), 見ていく->見てく(dropping い). You can find more examples here if you're interested: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/30996/9831 – chocolate Sep 27 '16 at 07:42
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You could say :

僕の友達がおいしいと言ったので、そのラーメン屋に行きたい。

But what you have (in the OP) is a more sophisticated way to put it, which is an abbreviated ( less sophisticated ) way of saying :

僕の友達がおいしいと言っていたので、そのラーメン屋に行きたくなった。

(1) Because I had been told X,　　(2) I began to think Y.

2 happened in the past, and 1 happened even before it.

言っていた is a Jp way of expressing this "tense-" relationship.

I think French and Spanish have a more established way of expressing this than English does. (The usual sentence pattern is: -- When i got to the station, the train had just left. When i saw him, he was at the bank.)

When I saw him, he was carrying a red bag.

その人を見た時に、彼は赤いカバンを持っていた。

My seeing him happened in the past, and his having (obtaining, grabbing) 持つ the bag happened even before that, and 持っていた is a Jp way of expressing this "tense-" relationship.

This [red bag] example is a paraphrase of the following :

http://www.geocities.jp/niwasaburoo/24asupekuto.html

　　その時、田中さんは赤いかばんを持っていました。

「持っていた」の例では、その全体が過去のことになっています。この話し手が「田中さんがかばんを持っている」のを見たのが過去のある時で、「田中さんがカバンを持った」のはそれよりも前の時点で す。

　　　　（「その時」より前に）持った →　（その時）持っていた　

(For me, at least) 言っていた, 持っていた feel like [imperfect tense] in French and Spanish. ----- 半過去 in French, 線過去（不完了過去） in Spanish.

半過去： 継続している過去、 終わりがはっきりしていない過去（未完了）、 そのシーンの背景。 過去の進行中の行為。 過去の習慣（何度か行ったこと）。

"My friend had been saying" may be a great way to think about it.

I can't find a good page (or any page) on this in English. Is there one?

HizHa
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