58084
I met a strange usage of tenses (辞書 and ている form) like:

> 「あいつは変わらないと言うべきか、変わってないと言うべきか」

I guess that it might be some kind of word play by using different tenses
(future and present continuous) like:

> I wonder it could be said that he would't change no matter what or he was a
> stubborn guy since the beginning.

It just a blind guess so I hope someone can explain in more detail about the
usage of tenses in this context.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-21T15:37:28.543
58069
2018-04-22T07:41:25.753
29550
question
tense
[Tense]: Present tense and continuous tense
あいつは変わらない literally, "He/She doesn't change/never changes."

変わってない literally "He/She hasn't changed."

I'm not sure where "stubbornness" comes into play, since I don't know the
origin of the quote. But essentially you are correct, the speaker is using the
subtle difference between the two tenses to make a point about the person. I
might translate it into something more like:

"I don't know whether to say he hasn't changed, or he can't change!" ... In
English, these are different tenses than the Japanese, but the sense of the
sentence might be conveyed more faithfully.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-04-22T07:41:25.753
58084
2018-04-22T07:41:25.753
29347
58069
answer