I've been studying Japanese here in Tokyo from scratch for a good 2 months now. I've been struggling with daily conversation but I try to improve each day by studying.
Lately, I am trying to understand when to use ~te form + iru/inai vs masu/masen. Don't get me wrong, this post is not about asking help for conjugation techniques, but rather which one to use especially for conversations. To ~te or not to ~te, that is the question.
For example:
When people ask if I did homework, I know the correct way of saying "I didn't do it" would be やっていない. I was wondering why, or rather, what would be the difference if I responded with やりませんでした/やらなかった or やっていなかった? Because the way I see it, I was not able to do my homework which was given in the past (probably like yesterday for example), therefore I should use past tense. Also, why not plainly use やりませんでした/やらなかった. Why does it have to be in ~te form?
Another example I have is:
What would be the difference between けっこんした vs けっこんしていた? I know the first one means "I got married in the past", does the second one mean "I was married in the past.. but now I am not!" ~ kind of nuance?
I know this might be something very basic, but for someone like me, it's hard to grasp it. Any feedback is much appreciated. Thank you!
