52487
I was reading the book _Spice and Wolf_ and I saw a sentence like this:

> …尻尾を左右に振っていたのだった。

I have never seen this kind of "double past tense" before. All the past tense
sentences I have seen that uses the のだ grammar _always_ end in のだ, not のだった.
振っている is already turned into past tense 振っていた, so why use だった instead of だ?

In other words, what is the difference between the above and the below?

> …尻尾を左右に振っていたのだ。
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-19T10:14:21.913
52484
2017-08-19T11:02:33.520
18200
question
grammar tense
Isn't the った part unnecessary in …たのだった?
The two versions mean the same thing, and I don't realize any significant
difference between them. Maybe, the first one emphasizes that the time is the
past. I mean, the first sentence emphasizes the past tense. However, as you
mentioned, the second one is perfectly fine in this context.

By the way, I've encountered what you called the "double past tense" so many
times in Japanese so far. I don't think it's ungrammatical or weird. You will
see it quite often, I believe.

Now my concern is the style of the novel. If the novel is written in the
"narrative mode," I mean the total sentences are basically written in the
present tense, it would be natural to choose the present tense at the end of
this sentence as well. However, if the total sentences are basically written
in the past tense, you may think it's more natural to choose the past tense in
the end of the sentence.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-19T10:36:36.380
52487
2017-08-19T11:02:33.520
2017-08-19T11:02:33.520
52484
answer