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KyleGoetz (Offline)
Attorney at Flaw
 
Posts: 2,965
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Texas
07-27-2011, 01:28 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxful View Post
Another question is, while I was watching this dorama, the actress sees a ghost but the ghost disappear almost immediately, so she says 消えてる! Shouldn't it be 消えた?
I can't completely explain this, but you'll notice this ている vs た shows up a lot when comparing English to Japanese. My understanding is that both are correct expressions in this case, but 消えてる will sound more native and focuses on his status as being disappeared. The other is might be more appropriate when saying "five minutes ago he disappeared" as opposed to a present-sense impression of "he just disappeared [a few moments ago]!"

In this case, the ghost's current status is of being gone, so 消えています. Think about the English: "He is vanished!" (is, not was) versus "He vanished!".

That being said, I am in no way able to know when to take ている over た when creating Japanese sentences myself, nor am I able to offer any lesson as to how to know when to use ている over た in situations like this.

Last edited by KyleGoetz : 07-27-2011 at 01:32 PM.