LEARN + JAPANESE / 77 of 186 JLPT N4
One Hand on This, One Eye on That ながら
ながら attaches to a verb’s stem, the part right before ます, and links two actions happening at the same time, done by the same person. The verb right before ながら is the background action; the verb at the end of the sentence is the main point.
Takuya watches TV while getting dressed.
Takuya goes to the office while talking on his phone.
Hint · 힌트
着替える becomes 着替えながら, 話す becomes 話しながら, attaching to the same stem you’ve used for たい, はじめる, and すぎる. Unlike 間 (which needs ている first), ながら attaches straight to the plain stem with nothing extra in between.
I usually eat while reading email.
I usually listen to music while taking a bath.
Hint · 힌트
間 marks one action happening inside a longer span, often with different actors, while ながら always means the same person doing both things literally at once, closer together in time than 間 usually implies.
Vocabulary
| Japanese | English |
|---|---|
| to get changed | |
| mobile phone | |
| to brush teeth | |
| to write a report | |
| dinner | |
| to exercise | |
| music | |
| to take a bath | |
| parallel, concurrent | |
| at the same time | |
| multitasking | |
| to concentrate | |
| habit | |
| background | |
| main topic, main point | |
| task, work | |
| action, movement | |
| dangerous | |
| to pay attention, be careful | |
| to combine |
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