A couple of grammar quesitons

So, why does “来ましたよ - Kimashita yo” translate to “Here he comes” instead of “He came”. Isn’t it suppose to be past tense?

Also, would “雨するでしょ ame suru desho” make sense as a sentence?

Thanks!

Who translated 来ましたよ as “Here he comes.” It helps to give the context of what you’re looking at.

No, because 雨 is not a noun that can be turned into a する verb. The verb for “to rain” is 雨がふる.

Technically, no. It’s a perfective tense.

It was in Japanese the Manga Way. Someone was coming by to give a speech, but I thought “Deshita” was specifically past tense.

でした and ました aren’t exactly the same thing. In reference to 来ましたよ, it is as @jjatria said: the た形 (past tense) means that the action has completed, not necessarily that it is in the (distant) past. In this particular case, I think translating it as “he has come” might help you to understand what’s going on here. In other words, he has already completed the action of coming - that is, he is already here.

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So not even “past tense”. In brief: actions described using the た形 can actually be in the future, as long as those actions are completed by that time. This, in essence, is what perfective means.

The example I gave in that link I posted is 「うちに帰ったとき連絡する」, which is said at a time before getting back home. So “getting home” is in the future. But since I’m using た形, the sentence refers to a time when that action has been completed (ie. I’ve already arrived home).

This happens in pretty much the same way in English (and many other languages) with the future perfect: “I will get in touch when I have arrived”.


What do you mean by this?

Yes, that’s right. That’s what I was trying to say but I think you’ve said it better than I could. I was trying to explain that although many people refer to the た形 as the “past tense”, that is not entirely accurate.

About the でした and ました thing, that was actually in response to @AerialSnack’s comment, where he said “I thought ‘Deshita’ was specifically past tense.” I had intended to reply to him, but it seems I messed that up. I was wondering why he brought up でした even though he was asking about the た形 of verbs.

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To expand on what @phyro said, in order to say “here he comes” in English, a person probably needs to be within sight. It’s not unreasonable to consider that a completed action of “coming” in the context of the た形 of Japanese. This sounds like a case of trying to make a translation as natural as possible, as opposed to trying to match the grammar exactly. I’m not sure I like that for something intended to teach grammar.

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