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> そのとき海岸の近くでは、州の職員などがドローンを使って **溺れた** 人を助ける練習をしていました。  
>  At that time, near the coast, some people were practicing rescuing people
> who **have drowned** using a drone.  
>  男の子たちが **溺れた** ことを知った人たちは、ドローンを沖に飛ばしました。  
>  The people who new the boys **had drowned** flew the drone to the open sea.  
>  ドローンは、 **溺れた** 人を助ける道具を男の子たちのすぐ近くに落としました。  
>  The drone dropped a device to rescue the people who **had drowned** right
> next to them.

I don't understand why 溺れた is used in these sentences, rather than 溺れている, or
even 溺れる. It seems to me that at the time of rescue the people are either
drowning now or will drown rather than having already drowned.

I'm not sure if I'm having a problem with this specific verb or if it
indicates a bigger hole in my understanding of aspect in relative clauses. I
tried reading [this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11975/what-
are-the-general-principles-of-using-verbs-to-modify-nouns-
e-g-%E7%84%A6%E3%81%92%E3%82%8B%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88-%E7%84%A6%E3%81%92%E3%81%9F),
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/21422/what-is-the-
difference-between-
using-%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%9F-%E3%81%9F-in-
relative-clauses) and
[this](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/3361/%E5%A4%AA%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%82%8B%E7%8C%AB-
vs-%E5%A4%AA%E3%81%A3%E3%81%9F%E7%8C%AB/3364#3364.) but I have to admit to
being completely mystified.
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2018-01-22T21:07:27.333
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2018-01-23T10:47:41.277
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question
grammar relative-clauses aspect
Difference between 溺れた人, 溺れている人 and 溺れる人
Your confusion is due to your translation of 溺れる to mean drown (to death).
This is a better translation:

> 溺れる 水中に落ちこんで死にそうになる。Fall into water and potentially die.

The only definite thing that we can ascertain from the use of 溺れる is that they
were submerged. In this case, in water.

> 溺れた人 Person who WAS under the surface (was drowning).
>
> 溺れている人 Person who IS under the surface (is drowning).
CC BY-SA 3.0
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2018-01-23T10:47:41.277
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answer