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I think くる in this sentence is supposed to be in past tense, right ? then why
did they use くる here ?

> 戦後、経済の高度成長とともに、生活にも少し余裕ができてくると、欧米の生活様式や考え方がたくさん入ってきた。
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2017-04-19T00:56:54.453
46693
2017-05-25T01:54:14.887
2017-04-19T04:28:52.763
18199
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question
grammar
what did they mean to use くる in the past time?
> 「Mini-Sentence **A** + **と** + Mini-Sentence **B** 」

In this sentence pattern using the conjunctive particle 「 **と** 」(" **
_when_** "), the **main verb in Mini Sentence A must always be in the
predicative form (terminal form)** . There is no exception to this rule
whether you like it or not. It does not matter when the action/event described
by that verb took place. In this respect, **Mini Sentence A is tense-less**.

(The predicative form **_happens_** to be the same as the present-tense form,
but that does not mean you can call the verb in Mini-Sentence A the "present-
tense form".)

Mini Sentence **B** , however, must be put in the correct tense that will
indicate when the action took/takes/will take place.

> 「戦後{せんご}、経済{けいざい}の高度成長{こうどせいちょう}とともに、生活{せいかつ}にも少{すこ}し余裕{よゆう}ができて **くる**
> と、欧米{おうべい}の生活様式{せいかつようしき}や考{かんが}え方{かた}がたくさん入{はい}って **きた** 。」

This sentence is a good example of that rule in use. **Everything that is
described in the sentence took place a few decades ago including
「生活にも少し余裕ができてくる」**. The fact that that mini-sentence would be written in the
past tense in English is completely irrelevant as the language we are
discussing here is none other than Japanese.

If your goal, however, is translation (instead of Japanese reading
comprehension), then that should sound most natural in the target language. Go
ahead and put 「余裕ができてくる」 in the past tense.

My own TL attempt:

> "After WWII, when people started having money to spare as our economy
> boomed, a great deal of western life styles and ideas began to be imported."
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2017-04-19T07:55:07.723
46698
2017-05-22T12:15:11.367
2017-05-22T12:15:11.367
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answer
Everything that @l'électeur mentioned is correct, just wanted to add a note
about the particular implications of 「S1 と、S2」. More than just meaning "when",
it expresses a _natural_ causality or sequence of events, that might even be
better conveyed by "whenever" in some cases. (If any of my examples are
misleading or mistaken, let me know. I am not native so I might miss a nuance
here or there.

  * 「ボタンを押すと、電気が消えます」(Whenever [and because] you press the button, the light turns off)
  * 「犬が夜中に吠えると、となりの人が「うるせぇ！」と大声で叫びます」(Whenever [and because] a dog barks in the middle of the night, my neighbor yells "Quiet!!" loudly)
  * 「転学して友達とお別れを言うと、さびしくなるような気がする」(When [and because] I transfer schools and have to say goodbye to my friends, I have a feeling that I will feel lonely)

In the last case, it is more of an emphasis on the _causal_ relation than on
the _reproducibility_ of the situation, though repetitive situations make the
causality clearer.

In any case, in order for there to be any kind of causality, the first
sentence has to be in the non-past tense (as the grammar is fairly uniform,
and saying "whenever you pushed the button, the light will turn out" makes no
sense). This applies even for when the overall situation is in the past tense,
because the implication is that, _if the same situation were to happen today_
, the outcome would be unchanged. (The button still controls the light, the
neighbor still is mad about the dog, and changing schools will still make you
lonely). The same time-independent causality applies to your sentence as well.

I hope that I helped explain things at least slightly more understandably.
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2017-05-25T01:54:14.887
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