変Time and change
Changes that come and go
行く and 来る also describe change over time: ~ていく moves away from now, and ~てくる moves toward now.
A timeline
Where's now?
It's going to keep getting colder.
From now, onward.
It's been getting colder.
Up until now.
~ていく
Going on from here
I'll keep practicing the piano from now on.
The population will probably keep shrinking.
The children kept growing up.
Past tense, viewed from a past moment onward.
~てくる
Coming up to now, or starting to happen
I've been gaining weight lately.
It's started raining.
The start of a process that affects you.
I've started to understand Japanese.
I've worked here for ten years.
Something continuing up to now.
Personal, or objective?
~てくる involves you
Prices have been going up.
It's affecting you.
Prices kept going up.
A more detached, objective report.
Not this
Sometimes they're just normal verbs
I'll take an umbrella.
Literally: hold it and go.
I'll go buy some bread and come back.
A very common way to say you'll pop out.
Check yourself
Which way in time?
Your turn
いきます or きました?
Say it yourself
A year in Japan
A friend asks how your Japanese is going. You've gradually gotten better, and you'll keep studying from now on.
Automatic feedback on your own answers is coming to Premium.
Builds on