Make sure you have read the legal bit on my home page.
saburinasanhashyokudounii,tatokite-buruniodorimashita "When Sabrina went to the dining-room, she danced on the table."
saburinasanhashyokudousurutokite-buruniodorimashita "While Sabrina was dining, she danced on the table."
Present plain form plus toki is a pattern which will appeal to the wenneyes. "When I was your age ..."
Note the subtle difference between this pattern and the equivalent simultaneous action pattern. Here, plain past form plus toki indicates that the second action happened after the first action was completed.
To illustrate the point again:
watashihaatorantisunii,tatoki . . . "When I went to Atlantis . . .".
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamagatata'taatodenugimashita. "Sabrina undressed after the wizard cast a spell."
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamaganojuubakunoatodenugimashita. "Sabrina undressed after the wizard's spell."
atode indicates that the following clause happened after the preceding clause. There is no specific implication of causality, just of temporal relationship. This construction indicates that the following clause describes a single action. As seen above, it can be used with nouns (noatode) or verbs.
Again, note the subtle difference between this pattern and the equivalent simultaneous action pattern. Here, plain past form plus atode indicates that the second action happened after the first action was completed.
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamagatataruatonuideimashita. "Sabrina was undressing after the wizard cast a spell."
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamaganojuubakunoatonuideimashita. "Sabrina was undressing after the wizard's spell."
ato (without the de) indicates that the following clause describes something with duration, rather than a single action. The implication here is that Sabrina took time over removing her clothes (perhaps performing a striptease act) rather than just took them off.
Yet again, note the subtle difference between this pattern and the equivalent simultaneous action pattern. Here, plain past form plus ato indicates that the second action started after the first action was completed.
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamagatatarumaenioshyaberishimashita. "Sabrina chattered before the wizard cast a spell."
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamagatatarumaenioshyaberishiteimashita. "Sabrina was chattering before the wizard cast a spell."
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamaganojuubakunomaenioshyaberishimashita. "Sabrina chattered before the wizard's spell."
saburinasanhamahoutsukaisamaganojuubakunomaenioshyaberishiteimashita. "Sabrina was chattering before the wizard's spell."
maeni indicates that the following clause happened before the preceding clause. There is no specific implication of causality, just of temporal relationship. There is no distinction between single and continuing actions. As seen above, it can be used with nouns (nomaeni) or verbs (in which case, oddly, the preceding clause uses the present plain form).
As far as I know, there is no simultaneous-action version of this sentence pattern. But I may be wrong.
mahoutsukaisamagatatatekarasaburinasanhanugimashita. "After the wizard cast a spell, Sabrina undressed."
tekara indicates that the following clause happened after the preceding clause. This form is not clearly different from atode: again, there is no specific implication of causality, just of temporal relationship, although the implication is that the first action must definitely be completed before the second one takes place. This pattern can only be used with verbs (using the te form).
This pattern can also be used to describe conditions resulting from actions:
saburinasanhanuidekaraureshikunaka,tadesu. "After undressing, Sabrina was unhappy."