I’m going through second Genki textbook and having troubles with 時 exercises in lesson 16.
Am I actually grammatically wrong? Because for me — both options make sense, the only difference is that my answers are describing a general situation and the “right” answer refers to a specific event. Like I’m trying to say “When I’m lost I’m asking a kind stranger for directions” instead of “When I was lost I asked a kind stranger for directions”. If my answers are grammatically correct then how the hell do I have to infer what it expects from me?
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Where are these quizzes from? I took a look into my DOBJG, and it has special rules for present and past relating to sentences that express action. The following examples are given:
私はご飯を食べる時手を洗う。-> I (will) wash my hands (right) before I eat my meal.
私はご飯を食べた時手を洗う。-> I (will) wash my hands (right) after I’ve eaten my meal
私はご飯を食べる時手を洗った。-> I washed my hands (right) before I ate my meal.
私はご飯を食べた時手を洗った。-> I washed my hands (right) after I ate my meal.
Given this nuance in translation, I can see how option 2 would be the best choice in the sentences you provided.
So I don’t think it’s a matter of being ungrammatical and more a matter of nuance? You do go to the hospital AFTER you’ve caught a cold, and you ask AFTER you are lost.
Without the past it’s not interpreted as a habitual statement.
Other options might be correct as well depnding on context…
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More generally, the rules for “what should the tense in a subordinate clause be and what effect does this have on the meaning?” are not the same for Japanese as they are in English. So intuitions based on the equivalent English sentence can lead you astray.
Hopefully the textbook explained how this works – if not maybe this page will help.
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I think without the past it’s grammatical but doesn’t make logical sense: “I go to the hospital before I catch a cold” etc.
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Thank you for your reply!
Basically it depends on context, right?
So if I want to make a statement habitual I still need to use the past tense?
These quizzes are based on exercises found in official Genki Workbook. It’s simply the same exercise but in digital form. The site was pressured by the publisher of Genki textbooks to remove these exercises, so I’m using a local copy of that site for convenience when I wan’t to trace back and check if my knowledge is still intact.
Okay so my problem was trying to apply English language logic to Japanese. Basically what I should do is place myself in perspective of event B and ask myself if event A has already happened / is still ongoing or yet to happen, even if I’m trying to make a habitual statement.
Another question then arises is how do I differentiate between a habitual statement and intention, simply by context?
P.S. — sorry for possible mistakes or if I don’t make any sense. I’m a Ukrainian who uses his English knowledge to study Japanese and some of the grammar terminology requires extra thought
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I think if you want to be more concrete about habitual “when → then” relations you would apply other grammar constructs, e.g. たら.
German here trying his best to make sense of Japanese grammar through my second language English as well 
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Okay, got it.
Then I would say something like:
”風を引いたら、病院に行きます”
Would that make sense?
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I’m sorry, we are getting into territory where you probably have to actually ask a native which of the options is more natural in which situations. I can’t answer these questions with any confidence. Take anything I said except my first post with a grain of salt .
EDIT: The only thing I’m certain about is that you misspelled cold in your sentence (風ー＞風邪), it’s at least an uncommon spelling.
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You can use 時 for habitual things, e.g. DoBJG has
松本さんは朝ご飯を食べる時いつもテレビを見る – Mr Matsumoto always watches TV when he eats his breakfast
Here the いつも is the cue that it’s habitual.
Conversely, in
私はシカゴへ行く時すしを食べるつもりだ – I’m going to eat sushi before I leave for Chicago/on the way to Chicago
the つもり tells us this is a statement of intention.
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Thank you for taking your time to help me!
I wish you luck in your journey then, but judging by your lvl you don’t really need it 
Yeah I’m yet to learn the second kanji in that word, so I didn’t know that while “wind” and “cold” sound the same, they’re written differently. Makes sense though lol
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I think both can be used:
風邪を引いたら、病院に行きます。
If (and when) I catch a cold, I’ll go to the hospital.
Maybe this one sounds a bit like an answer to a question “and if you catch a cold, then what!?”. More about a specific concern.
風邪を引いた時、病院に行きます。
When I catch a cold, I (normally) go to the hospital.
And this one sounds a little bit more like a general attitude to life: I eat when hungry, I check in with doctors when sick.
風邪を引いた時、病院に行きました。
When I caught a cold, I when to the hospital.
Also sounds fine to me, but this is about a specific past event. Not sure what disqualifies it as a possible answer in your exercise.
風邪を引く時…
I feel this has certain intentionality to it.
“When I go for a walk / when I open a drawer / when I catch a cold (intentionally)”.
That’s a pretty unusual thing to say, so if you are actually trying to catch a cold on purpose by going to a hospital (a very effective strategy by the way), you’d probably phrase it a little differently. Maybe add volitional ～ようとする or ～たい.
I’m not a native speaker, so please take all of this with a grain of salt. If you bring grammar questions to Bunpro’s forums, native staff might comment as well.
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Are the red answers wrong?
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Yes. Not exactly grammatically wrong, but turns out they don’t make logical sense.
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Thank you for a profound answer and sorry for a late reply!
Are these forums free to use?
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