‐いた and ‐ていた

[aegd]

I'm having some trouble with these forms, I don't really understand what the difference is. I understand that both are past tense, but it's not clear to me when you are supposed to use what form. We've only covered it breifly in class, and If I just translate it never really bothers me, because it's clear from the context. However if I'm trying to put together a sentance it's pretty much a mess.

[Elfunko]

Give an example and the difference shall be revealed.

[aegd]

彼は菜食主義者だったが、時々魚を食べていた。

彼は菜食主義者だったが、時々魚を食べた。

so what's the difference, does the second example even make a proper sentance?

[Joey]

no expert here, but in my mind i read the first sentence as "He was a vegetarian, but sometimes he was eating fish." and the second sentece as "he was a vegetarian, but sometimes he ate fish." So to me the 2nd sounds better, my translations could be (probably are) wrong though. (in which case i need to learn too ^^)

My teacher always explains the Te + iru form of verb to be a continual action verb, for example she always says that she is けっこんしている, not けっこんした because she is still married, even though the wedding is long over. Don't know if this explanation helps though.

[aegd]

no expert here, but in my mind i read the first sentence as "He was a vegetarian, but sometimes he was eating fish." and the second sentece as "he was a vegetarian, but sometimes he ate fish." So to me the 2nd sounds better, my translations could be (probably are) wrong though. (in which case i need to learn too ^^)

My teacher always explains the Te + iru form of verb to be a continual action verb, for example she always says that she is けっこんしている, not けっこんした because she is still married, even though the wedding is long over. Don't know if this explanation helps though.

I understand that much, it's not te + iru i'm having problem with. Anyway, this example sentance was taken from SPACEALC and the first sentance translated like "he was a vegetarian, but sometimes he ate fish". I wrote the second example myself, but to me, it seems like it would translate in the same way.

as for けっこんしている.

けっこんしていた　

Could this mean both "he was married" and "He had married" depending on context?

The examples I looked up only hinted at the first alternative. How would this work when writing about past events? Like "He ran for two kilometers before he got tired" "He had been running for two hours when he suddenly became terribly tired"

[Javizy]

Remember that the ている form can be used to describe habitual actions.

読売新聞を読んでいる I read the Yomiuri newspaper.

It would make a lot more sense if the vegetarian's fish eating was habitual and not progressive, but the guy would have to be dead or otherwise out of the picture for the past tense to be used. That's how I would interpret it anyway, but I'm no expert either, so it'd be nice to hear from somebody who is.

[aegd]

Remember that the ている form can be used to describe habitual actions.

読売新聞を読んでいる I read the Yomiuri newspaper.

It would make a lot more sense if the vegetarian's fish eating was habitual and not progressive, but the guy would have to be dead or otherwise out of the picture for the past tense to be used. That's how I would interpret it anyway, but I'm no expert either, so it'd be nice to hear from somebody who is.

How can something be habitual when he only does it sometimes? Don't you have to do it regular basis for it the be habitual?

Anyway, this really doesn't do anything to help me with the question. I've said before that ている really isn't the problem.

[Javizy]

How can something be habitual when he only does it sometimes? Don't you have to do it regular basis for it the be habitual?

Anyway, this really doesn't do anything to help me with the question. I've said before that ている really isn't the problem.

As long as it's repeated over a period of time, it's still habitual; he could have occasionally eaten fish throughout his entire life. 'Sometimes' is just an adverb of frequency, you can use rarely, often, always, etc, but it's still the same structure.

Like I said I'm no Japanese expert, so I'll leave it to somebody else, but surely the differences between た and ていた comes with the territory of comfortably understanding ている, which you do already.