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I'm reading a graded reader about the 地蔵（じぞう）folktale. The おじいさん gets to the
statues and finds them with snow on their heads and bodies. He removes the
snow from them and places hats on five out of six of them. Then he says:
あれ、困りましたねえ. After that, he realizes there's one left without a hat, he takes
his off and places it on it's head. My question is, when he says 困りました, does
he mean he was troubled before he put the hats on the five statues, and after
that he wasn't? Or that he's troubled because there's one without a hat left?
I think it's the former, and if it were the latter, it would be 困っています. Is
that assumption correct?
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2015-06-07T15:47:50.183
24861
2021-05-15T01:56:46.737
5423
question
grammar verbs
困りました or 困っています
It sounds like he said it after he realized there's one without a hat. In
daily speech people say 困った to themselves or about someone else at the moment
they realize something's wrong. Saying 困っています sounds like you're asking for
some kind of long term help.
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2015-06-07T16:58:21.817
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2015-06-07T16:58:21.817
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answer
> My question is, when he says 困りました, does he mean he was troubled before he
> put the hats on the five statues, and after that he wasn't? Or that he's
> troubled because there's one without a hat left? I think it's the former,
> and if it were the latter, it would be 困っています. Is that assumption correct?

Think of 困りましたねえ、or こまったねぇ, is an idiom and you are better off not dissecting
it. Simlpy think of the phrase as

"Oh no. This won't do."

おじいさん simply encountered a six-statue-and-five-hat situation, laments it, and
then finds a solution. No more, no less going on. It's an idiom. It's sort of
like how you are better off not dissecting "You are welcome." and wonder what
is being welcomed and such.
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2021-05-15T01:56:46.737
86633
2021-05-15T01:56:46.737
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answer