93909
For example

> 歌を歌ったりしていますか？

vs

> 歌を歌っていたりしますか？

Also for a sentence like this:

> あなた、私が盗んだと思っていたりします？

vs

> あなた、私が盗んだと思ったりしています？

I've asked a native speaker and apparently the second sentence seems more
polite? Why is that?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-30T19:10:05.460
93905
2022-03-31T04:32:42.590
2022-03-31T04:32:42.590
43676
10316
question
grammar tense aspect
What is the difference between していたりします and したりしています
These four sentences look equally natural and correct to me. I can feel no
difference regarding politeness level. Just in case you missed this, this type
of たり marks an unlikely occasion, often as a softener. See: [Meaning of
ーたりしない](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55396/5010) and [What does
良いところだったりする mean in this
sentence?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/52637/5010)

When there are two or more verbs, for example, 歌ったり踊ったりしている is more common and
natural than 歌っていたり踊っていたりする, although the latter is not incorrect.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-31T03:39:47.273
93908
2022-03-31T03:39:47.273
5010
93905
answer
> A-1. 歌を歌ったりしていますか？
>
> A-2. 歌を歌っていたりしますか？

A-1 is asking whether the other person spends time singing songs and possibly
doing other things. The main point of the question is what the listener does
as a habit or is currently doing. You could list another activity.

> 歌を歌ったり音楽を聴いたりしていますか？

A-2 has a slightly different implication. It sounds as if it is asking whether
the current situation is such that the listener, or someone else, is in the
middle of singing. The main point of the question is what the situation is
like. I cannot think of a good scenario in which this question sounds
completely natural. Perhaps it is part of a phone conversation and the speaker
suspects from the background noise that the listener is with someone and that
person is singing a song.

The difference is in a way more obvious in the following pair. (I swapped the
order of the sentences so the correspondence with the first pair would be
clearer.)

> B-1. あなた、私が盗んだと思ったりしています？
>
> B-2. あなた、私が盗んだと思っていたりします？

B-1 sounds a bit unnatural to me. It cannot be asking whether the other person
is currently having a particular idea or doing other things. In other words,
what the speaker wants to know cannot be what the listener is doing now. Just
like B-2, it must be also asking what the current situation is like. If the
purpose is that, the second construction sounds much more natural. It implies
that the speaker suspects the current situation is something unexpected for
them.

> あなた、もしかして／ひょっとして私が盗んだと思っていたりします？

It could be understood as a rhetorical question whose real meaning is
something like this.

> あなた、まさか私が盗んだと思ってないでしょうね。

It is probably because of this acusatory implication that the native speaker
you consulted thought B-2 (the “first” in the original order) was “less
polite” than B-1 (the “second” in the original order). To me, B-1 simply
sounds less natural.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-31T03:59:32.490
93909
2022-03-31T04:15:18.873
2022-03-31T04:15:18.873
43676
43676
93905
answer