Difference between あなたのことを話してたところだよ and あなたのことを話してたよ

[Dante404]

Hello, I was studying some verbal forms with ところ and I realized I don't understand the difference between the progressive form in past + ところ and
the progressive form in past without ところ, as following:


あなたのことを話してたところだよ
あなたのことを話してたよ

As far as I understood they mean "I was talking about you", right? Which is the nuance of the sentence containing ところ then?

[jim.schuler]

ところ in this usage brings an immediacy to the action: you just did or are in the middle of or are about to do something. So your first sentence is "I was just talking about you," while the second is "I was talking about you."

[Dante404]

Thank you! I got it . Then, could the one with ところ also be translated as "we've just been talking about you" ?

[jim.schuler]

Absolutely. Who is doing the action is often implied by context, which allows for some vagueness. A direct translation is "Just been talking about you," with "I" or "we" or "they" or whoever left up to the listener.

[Dante404]

Thanks again But what I was actually asking (sorry for not being specific) is about the tense, if "just been talking about you" " besides "just was talking about you" is another correct translation, irrespective of the person/pronoun. I guess it is according to the answer you just gave me

[jim.schuler]

Hmm... Well, "We've just been" can--depending on how it's said--have the added connotation of "were you not paying attention?" In that sense, I don't know Japanese well enough to comment. Otherwise though, "We've just been" and "We were just" are two different ways to same the same thing in English, so anything in Japanese that has the same meaning can be translated as such. That's the important thing with translation: getting the meaning, not necessarily the words.

Edit: Wait. Got that wrong. "Have been" doesn't need to be immediate. I "have been" trying to learn Japanese, but it doesn't mean that I put down my Japanese book just a second ago. So, no, it doesn't necessarily translate. Instead, I think the present tense is more appropriate:

あなたのことを話してる

This goes back to て+いる indicating a state, not a continuous action, so it probably work as the present progressive.

Edit II: Heh, I actually ran into this a year ago and plum forgot. You do use て+いる, put preface the whole thing with 最近

最近あなたのことを話してる

[community.japanese]

jim.schuler san, Dante404 san,
Konnichiwa.
It seems that you have had a good discussion.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask us.
Yuki 由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com