Too late. I’ve already phoned the police.
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Although I understand what you’re saying, I think this context (that you’ve created) makes seeing the difference harder to distinguish. 間 and 時 have distinct uses so please be careful not accidentally group them together. My understanding of 時 is that it also has the meaning of “occasion”. This lends to talking about a specific instance or repeated instances (when applicable).
So,
寝ている間 (During the time period) while sleeping
寝ている時 (The time[s]/occasion[s]) when sleeping
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Maybe it’s easier to see the difference when talking about 子供の時 for example? I don’t think you can have 子供の間 so I’m starting to understand it. Maybe it’s not the right way to look at it though.
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While we’re on the topic of sleeping, can someone explain what the difference is between 眠る and 眠れる? I can’t find a definition for the second one, but I see it all over the place. Is it a conjugation I’m not familiar with maybe?
Question about ~ておく and ~てあく:
Recently learned about these bad boys from Tae Kim’s guide. I don’t try to think to hard about what I read, but rather let it digest for later.
I want to know if I can conjugate てあく, or if there even is a need for that. In the example in Tae Kim’s, it seems that it implies past tense. I’ll show the example:
Ａ：準備はどうですか。
A: How are the preparations?
Ｂ：準備は、もうしてあるよ。
B: The preparations are already done.
I am guessing that I can conjugate to the negative, but is there any need to conjugate to the past?
Then, with ておく I have the same question. Here’s the example from Tae Kim’s below.
晩ご飯を作っておく。
Make dinner (in advance for the future).
電池を買っておきます。
I’ll buy batteries (in advance for the future).
I feel that it makes sense to say:
晩ご飯を作っておきました / 作っておいた
Made dinner (in advance for the future.)
Just want to make sure I understand this, because as much as I like Tae Kim’s, I think it’s a little vague at times.
眠れる is the potential form of 眠る. So it would mean “to be able to sleep”.
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First, be careful because you wrote てあく. The correct auxiliary verb is てある, as you see in the examples.
As for your actual questions. I’m confident that it makes sense to conjugate ておく to the past tense, just like in your example.
From this article, it looks like you can conjugate てある to the past tense, but I have no idea how common this is. Hopefully someone else can answer that part of your question better.
Good catch! I got the two mixed up at some point. Thank you for your confidence on the ておく conjugation and the article!
These grammar points can get a bit sticky if you’re not solid about how they are interpreted. ～ておく focuses on actions in preparation for something. ～てある focuses on the resultant state of something. You could possibly used ～ておいた to say something was prepared in the past for now, but normally at that point, people prefer to know if preparations have resulted into something fruitful. In which case, ～てある would be used instead.
Although it would sound nice to say it this way, once dinner is made, there are no preparations remaining. I think this gives the nuance that the preparations (e.g., ingredients have been purchased, pans taken out, etc.) are finished, but dinner hasn’t be cooked yet (result).
That makes sense to me. So thinking of an example, where a mother has prepared a bento for her child for school.
When handing the bento to the child, the mother might say 弁当を作ってある, focusing on the fact that the bento has been made (the resultant state). (Perhaps it’s unusual for the mother to prepare a bento, so it’s worth stating.)
At school, if another student asked the child about the bento, perhaps the child would say 母が作っておいた, focusing on the fact that the mother made the bento (the action).
Do both of those cases sound reasonable?
I appreciate your explanation! It seems then that I don’t have to worry too much about the conjugations, which is a relief because I feel like I need some more time for this grammar point to set in, as it’s not quite clicking yet.
All right, time for a dumb particle question but it’s bothering the heck out of me. So the official Memrise Japanese 3 course (which I have a love/hate/usually-hate relationship with) has this sentence:
医者は彼にもっと薬が必要だと考えています。
Great, got it.
But.
The audio recordings and the literal translation section clearly have it as
医者は彼がもっと薬が必要だと考えています。
instead.
Here’s a screenshot that shows off both versions.
Do these both mean the same thing? Are there different nuances? Is one flat out wrong? Please help. I get angry every time this sentence comes up for review.
I would say the がが one is wrong, if が marks the subject there can’t be two, right? 彼が必要だ also doesn’t make much sense.
[If it not some freaky high level grammar I don’t know yet.]
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You and @LucasDesu might be interested in this page from A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. I’ve only looked at ておく, but it was enlightening and cleared up my conjugation question. Past tense does seem to be used!
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I was reading that page in my copy earlier as well (for like the 5th time). I think at this point the question is more about when it’s used, not if it’s used.
Hopefully @LucasDesu will take a look at my example when he gets a chance. Maybe that will clear things up.
(Disclaimer: I’m just a beginner trying to piece things together, so these are just my thoughts 
)
I think technically it is possible to have two が in one sentence, namely when one is in a modifying clause (relative clause) and the other is the subject of the main sentence.
But I don’t think this is the case with this sentence here, because then my understanding is that “he” would have the thought of needing more medicine. And this does not make sense to me.
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If I want to say “studying at a med school” and I use the で particle, I kind of make it sound like I’m studying inside the school, not necessarily studying to become a doctor, right?
医大で勉強しています。
So I have to use the に particle?
The question I would have is, by “studying at a med school” do you actually mean you’re an enrolled med school student? Because there’s probably a more natural way to say it than 勉強する.
Don’t let yourself feel restricted by the way that we happen to phrase things in English.
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Yep. I just haven’t learned that much vocabulary yet. I don’t really know how to say it in any other way, I’m working with what I’ve got.
Ah, well “medical school” is 医大 (EDIT: oh right you already knew that), and the 生 suffix meaning “student”, can come together to make 医大生, and then just “医大生です” is probably the most natural way to say “I’m a med school student.”
If you want to use 勉強する then 医学を勉強しています is probably more natural.
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