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Looking at past questions I am still confused about the answers given:

  1. The answer to [this post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/38796/meaning-of-%E5%AF%9D%E3%81%A6%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84) suggests that 寝る is a continuation of some state.

> 昨日も全然寝てない。  
>  Yesterday I didn't sleep at all.

Instead of

> 昨日も全然寝てなかった。  
>  Yesterday I didn't sleep at all.

  2. The answer to [this post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/47448/usage-and-meaning-%E5%AF%9D%E3%82%8D-vs-%E5%AF%9D%E3%81%A6%E3%82%8D?rq=1) suggests that 寝る is an active verb

> 寝てろ Keep sleeping (keep doing the action of sleeping)

* * *

I want to confirm my understanding of active vs stative verbs:

Active

  * 書いている - (I) am writing [present progressive]

  * 書いていない - (I) am not writing [negative present progressive]

  * 書いていた - (I) was writing [past progressive]

  * 書いていなかった - (I) was not writing [negative past progressive]

Stative

  * 帰っている - (I) have (already) came home [present progressive]

  * 帰っていない - (I) I have not come home (but I might be in the middle of coming home) OR I didn't come home. (also in the past?) [negative present progressive]

  * 帰っていた - (I) I had come home (sometime in the past I came home) [past progressive]

  * 帰っていなかった (I) had not come home (sometime in the past I didn't come home) [negative past progressive]

* * *

I especially have trouble differentiating (for stative verbs) between 帰っていない
and 帰っていなかった。

Because of that I also cant understand why 昨日も全然寝てない。 is not 昨日も全然寝てなかった。If it
was a stative verb.

If 寝る is an active verb in this scenario it also wouldn't make sense at all
because I would translate it as "yesterday I am not sleeping".

[This post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/42242/why-is-a-verb-
in-the-past-%E3%81%9F%E5%BD%A2-contradicted-
with-%EF%BD%9E%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84) may be related but I only
see examples where it is used as an answer to a question.
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grammar nuances verbs
Is 寝る a stative or active verb?
寝る works as both. See [the example of 溶ける in this
answer](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/3140/5010). 寝ている/寝てる can mean
both "is sleeping" (present progressive) and "have slept" (present perfect).
寝ていた/寝てた can mean both "was sleeping" (past progressive) and "had slept" (past
perfect). It depends on the context.

When you talk about something in the past, the difference between 寝た and 寝ている
can be sometimes blurry, and they are often interchangeable. For instance, if
someone in front of you looks sleepy, you can say both "昨日あまり寝てないの?" and
"昨日あまり寝なかったの?". But 寝ている tends to be used in relation to the _current_
situation, so 寝てないの may be chosen more often in this case. Likewise, before a
boring but important event, you would usually choose "昨日ちゃんと寝てる?" rather than
"昨日ちゃんと寝た?" See also: [Why is a verb in the past (た形) contradicted with
～ていない?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/42242/5010)

Imperative 寝て(い)ろ always has a progressive meaning, because making a command
about something in the past does not make sense (You cannot say "Have slept!"
in English, either.)

Past perfect 寝て(い)なかった ("had slept") is relatively uncommon, but it's used
when you talk about it in relation to another event in the past.

>   * 昨日よく寝ていなかったので今朝の試験に落ちた。  
>  I _failed_ the examination in this morning because I _had not slept_ well."
>   * 夫は家に帰っている。  
>  My husband has arrived home. (He is at home _now_ )
>   * 私が家に帰ったとき、夫ももう帰っていた。  
>  When I _arrived_ home, my husband _had arrived_ home, too. (Where he is
> _now_ is not important)
>

**EDIT:** Here is the basic difference between present and past perfective
aspect. The eye icon indicates what you are describing. Past perfective aspect
describes a continuation of state _until some point of interest in the past_ ;
its current status is not important. 寝ていた works just like this, too, but it
can also mean progressive "was sleeping".

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dY6BD.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dY6BD.png)
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answer
> I escpecially have trouble differentiating (for stative verbs) between
> 帰っていない and 帰っていなかった。

I'll answer your question because the difference between the two expressions
is obvious.

Assuming that the subject is "he", 帰っていない means " _He has not come home and
**he is not at home now**_ ".

**Note: added the following three lines**  
Linguistically, 帰っていなかった is used as an expression in which the tense of 帰っていない
is shifted one step to the past, but sometimes it is used with the nuance that
the state of 帰っていなかった was contrary to the expectation. In this case it is used
as follows:  
帰っていなかった implies that "帰っていると思ったが帰っていなかった _**I expected that he had come
home** but he hadn't. ~~**I don't know if he is at home now**~~_ ".

By the way, we usually say 帰ってない instead of 帰っていない.

# EDIT

As 帰っている has meaning of both "having already come home" and present
progressive form with "being coming home", it is troublesome to distinguish
them even Japanese. Therefore, in the case of present progressive form, we
generally say that " **今** 帰っている **ところです/だ** " instead of "帰っている".

For example, " **今｛いま｝帰っているところだ** 。電車{でんしゃ}の中｛なか｝だよ。もうすぐ帰｛かえ｝るから待｛ま｝っていてね。"
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