Quote:
Originally Posted by StueyT
Hi all,
A quick question regarding past tenses. I've seen Verbs referred to in their usual たform and also in a ~ていました form and was wondering if there was any difference in how/when to use them and if not, which is more commonly used.
For example：
’He forgot his glasses'
彼はめがねを忘れました / 彼はめがねを忘れた
Or
彼はめがねを忘れていました / 彼はめがねを忘れていた
|
The two sets of sentences mean very different things from each other.
彼はめがねを忘れました / 彼はめがねを忘れた means "He left his glasses somewhere." or "He forgot to bring his glasses."
彼はめがねを忘れていました / 彼はめがねを忘れていた These you won't hear too often if at all. The only situation I can think of where you might say it is as follows. You are recounting the time when you were watching someone packing for a trip. He told you he was done with the packing. Then you saw his glasses someplace in the room and kindly told him about it. He thanks you and puts the glasses in the bag. Now you're saying to someone, "He was forgetting about his glasses."