Telling a story in Japanese with とき and ながら

Level B1

Telling a story in Japanese with とき and ながら

A story separates what was going on from what happened. In this lesson you build that background with …ていました, …ながら and …とき, and you move the story on with …ました. The last verb of a sentence says when it all took place; what comes before it sets the scene.

Warm-up: place, past, sequence and state

These sentences already hold most of what you need. 家で働きました uses で for the place of the action and ました for the past. コーヒーを飲んで、それから、働きます puts two actions in order. 今食べています says what is in progress, and ドアが開いています the state left after an action. 公園に行った and パンを食べた are the plain past, which comes back inside longer sentences here.

New words: とき, ながら and ある日

時 (toki) means “when”. The dictionary writes it with the kanji, but in this use it is often written in kana, とき, as it is throughout this lesson. ながら (nagara) joins two actions done at once, and ある日 (aru hi), “one day”, opens a story. 学校 (gakkō), “school”, you may remember from 学校の先生.

Model: the job at the café

Listen once without reading. Someone tells about a day from their student years: first the background, then what happened, then what came next. Nobody says “I”, and in each sentence only the last verb is in the past.

Background and event: …ていました and …ました

…ていました is the past of …ています: change ます to ました and “am doing” becomes “was doing”. 昨日、カフェで働きました reports a finished fact. カフェで働いていました paints the background, and it can cover a whole period, like “I was working at a café” or “I worked at a café back then”. 雨が降りました is “it rained”, and 雨が降っていました “it was raining”. The form is close to the English past continuous, but not always: with 開く it keeps the state you already know, so ドアが開いていました is “the door was open”, not “was opening”. In a story, …ていました sets the scene and …ました moves things on.

Two actions at once: …ながら

Drop ます from the polite form and add ながら: 飲みます → 飲みながら, 食べます → 食べながら, 働きます → 働きながら, 見ます → 見ながら. One person does both actions, and the main one goes last: コーヒーを飲みながら、働きました is about working, with the coffee on the side. The ながら form never changes; the last verb gives the tense and the register, as in 働きました or, among friends, 働いた. In 働きながら、学校に行っていました both actions fill a whole period of life, not a single moment. Careful with “while”: it allows two people (“I worked while she ate”), and ながら does not.

〜（ます）ながら、…

Marking the moment: …とき

とき closes the clause that gives the time, where English “when” opens it. After a noun, add の: 学生のとき, “when I was a student”. After a verb, use the plain form (…ています becomes …ている), such as 働いている for an action in progress: 働いているとき、友達が来ました. That 働いている stays non-past even in a past story, because the end of the sentence sets the time; you will also hear 働いていたとき, and …ていた is …ていました among friends. When a second person enters, name them with が, and keep the sentence to two events. The background can also come last: 友達が来たとき、パンを食べていました.

〜の／〜ている／〜たとき、…

The timeline of とき

Read each row from left to right. ● is a single event, and ━━▶ is something already under way and still going. 本を買う is “to buy a book”, 日本に行く “to go to Japan” and 先生が来る “the teacher comes”. The full sentences, with audio, are in the section before this one (飲んでいるとき) and the next one (行くとき, 行ったとき).

The clause ends in① First② Next
行くとき（いくとき）● 本を買う（ほんをかう）● 日本に行く（にほんにいく）
行ったとき（いったとき）● 日本に行く（にほんにいく）● 本を買う（ほんをかう）
飲んでいるとき（のんでいるとき）━━ コーヒーを飲む（のむ） ━━▶━━ ● 先生が来る（せんせいがくる） ━━▶

Before or after: 行くとき or 行ったとき

The form before とき is measured against the last verb, not against today. 日本に行くとき、本を買いました says the trip had not ended yet: the book was bought before arriving. 日本に行ったとき、本を買いました says the trip had already happened: the book was bought there. Both end in 買いました, so both are about the past. English can say “when I went to Japan” for either, so read the form before translating. Here you see this contrast with 行く, and other verbs of a single action work the same way; with …ている, as you saw, the two things overlap.

A story in short sentences

You don't need one long sentence. In this lesson each sentence holds at most two actions; for a third action, close with 。 and go on. These three sentences tell one small story: ある日 and …ていました set the scene, …ながら adds what was done, and それから moves on.

Your turn, and the summary

Imagine a rainy day: you went to the park, it was raining, so you went to a café and drank tea watching the rain. Cover the sentences below and tell it in three sentences, with 行ったとき, それから and 見ながら; then check. A different place or drink is even better. To sum up: …ていました sets the background, …ながら joins two actions by one person, …とき marks the moment and …ました moves the story on.

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