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Why is the past tense used in this verbs (which doesn't make sense to me at least)

生きていた…？違うな…死ねなかったのだよ…！

再生機能を持ったこのアーマーに押し込みおった

and the translation uses present tense

Survive? That's easy... Because I can't die!

And switched my body for this armor with the power to rejuvenate me

Does it make sense to use the past tense? or it's just how the character talks?

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Jon
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  • Maybe another character (surprisingly) said "お前、生きていたのか!" or something like this before him? Could you add that part and explain the context? – naruto Nov 07 '16 at 14:24
  • Yes, the other characters said exactly that before. This character A is been told that character B didn't die in an explosion so charger A says 生きていたのかbut still I don't understand why B says 死ねなっかた instead of 死ねない – Jon Nov 07 '16 at 15:25
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    The guy in the armor says 死ねなかった because he "couldn't" die in the explosion. Basically they are talking with the past tense simply because they are talking about what happened in the past. And maybe you can forget this official translation which is not really literal. Could you explain why you think using the past tense doesn't make sense to you? – naruto Nov 07 '16 at 18:09
  • Because 死ねなかったのだよ means "I couldn't die" and it sounds like he couldn't die before but now he can, he should say "I can't die" because his immortal – Jon Nov 07 '16 at 18:27
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    Saying "生きていたのか/死ねなかったのだ" does not imply the situation is now different. I don't know why, though I've seen some similar questions here. Maybe [のだ/のか](http://sakamotomaaya.com/291/information-deficits) plays some role here? If the translation were "It is because I could not die", does this sound better to you? – naruto Nov 08 '16 at 03:56
  • I never thought 野田 would have something to do here, and since you've seen similar questions, maybe thats how the character talks and has something to do with him being and old man and polite speech – Jon Nov 08 '16 at 19:46
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    It's の+だ, not 野田 (did you see the link?). And again, saying 死ねなかったのだ/死ねなかったんだ in Japanese does not imply you can die now. I can assure this is a perfectly natural way of using past tense in Japanese, regardless of age. He is explaining why he survived the past explosion, and that's simply why he uses the past tense. – naruto Nov 08 '16 at 23:57
  • Sorry it was a typing error. I think you're right, I just need to get used to it, I've just started learning japanese like 4 months ago. You said you've seen similar questions here, could you provide the links so I can study them? if not maybe a couple of sentences would help. Also I've read that the た form has other uses besides the past tense according to https://kotobank.jp/word/%E3%81%9F-556028#E5.A4.A7.E8.BE.9E.E6.9E.97.20.E7.AC.AC.E4.B8.89.E7.89.88 but since I don't know japanese I can't understand it – Jon Nov 09 '16 at 01:30
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    Maybe [this one](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/20883/5010) is more or less related. Another seemingly weird usage of た-form is [this](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/3361/5010), but I think it's not relevant to this question. – naruto Nov 09 '16 at 01:47

2 Answers2

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Finally I found an explanation that possibly answers at least your original question. This usage of "past tense" is called 発見の「た」 (ta for discovery) or ムードの「た」 (modal ta).

Most articles about this are written in Japanese, but here's an article written in English: Another Function of the Ta-form: Discovery and Recall

In a nutshell, my understanding is that た/だ, typically after ある/いる/ない, can sometimes express the nuance of "I've noticed ...", "I've just recalled ..." or "(In spite of one's prevoius knowledge/belief,) the fact is...". It actually refers to something in the present.

  • へえ、君はフランス語が読めたんですね。
    Wow, you can read French! (although I have thought you can't)
  • (after looking for a wallet for a while) あっ、財布、こんなところにあったのか！
    Oh! There it is, my wallet!
  • そうでした、明日は休みでした。今思い出しました。
    Yeah, that is right, I have the day off tomorrow. I've just recalled that.
  • (after trying to open a door) おっと、鍵がかかってた。
    Oops, the door is locked.

As you can see, "fixing (or updating) one's previous knowledge/expectation" seems to be the key here. So saying 「お前、生きていたのか!」 is okay because he has believed the opponent in front of him is dead.

References (These are very long articles and I haven't read them all):

Related question:

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naruto
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    slightly late response (only two years, ha!), but I think this use of the past tense would be okay rendered in English as well, e.g.: "wow, you **could** read french (after all)!" "ah, my wallet **was** here (the whole time, after all, etc)!" "oops, the door **was** locked (this whole time)". the nuance seems to be exactly as you found (updating a previously held belief), but I just wanted to point out there are potentially even more natural correlations with English phrases. – HotelCalifornia Dec 15 '18 at 04:26
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    some other examples (from a class in Japanese linguistics I took this past semester): 「明日は道子さんの誕生日（です・でした）ね」-> former is a neutral description, while the latter is seeking confirmation for a fact that was forgotten; 「あ、コンタクトレンズ、こんなところに（ある・あった）」-> former implies an unexpected outcome (i.e. was found accidentally), while the latter implies the target was being actively sought out. sorry for rambling on this! – HotelCalifornia Dec 15 '18 at 04:40
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After much investigation I came to the conclusion that the use of past tense in these sentences could mean:
1.-Showing confirmation: In the first sentence the character confirms to the hero that he indeed did not died in the explosion.
2.-Dialect: I've read somewhere that some people above 50 in Hokkaido talk with past tense when they should be using the present tense.
3.-Just how the language is: I've read that the concept of tenses is not the same for all the languages in the world, so maybe using the past tense in that way makes sense for the japanese and just need to get used to it.

Jon
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  • A very similar question posted today: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/40877/5010 – naruto Nov 14 '16 at 02:44
  • 1. "showing confirmation" is related to [this](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/17649/5010), but I don't think it's relevant in this case. 2. I don't think this is dialectal. 3. Yes I think that's right, but sorry I cannot give a clear-cut answer. – naruto Nov 14 '16 at 02:52