was just about to do something
was just ~ing
in the middle of ~ing
Structure
- Verb + ところだった
- Verb[ ていた ] + ところだった
[Often used with 危うく to indicate some threat was “narrowly” avoided]
I’m quite confused with the phrase: “やっと馴れてきたところだったのに、仕事を辞めなければいけなくなった.”
Having done “Verb［た］ + ところ + だ”, meaning “just finished doing”, shouldn’t “馴れてきたところだった” mean “had just gotten used to” ? Or is it an exception being that it’s a past progressive given the “てくる” (basically putting more emphasis on the fact that it’s progressive first, and only then that it’s in the past)?
1 Like
I suppose I could see this being translated either way. Either, “despite finally (having been in the process of) getting used to it,” or, “despite having finally gotten used to it.” In fact, I think the first translation has the same flavor of being somewhat ambiguious. You could take it to mean I was used to it but still growing more so, or that I was fully and thoroughly accustomed to it, I think.
The 馴れる spelling in reference to 仕事 here made me 
1 Like
How does this compare to “そうになった”/“そうだった”?
As in: 滑って転びそうになった
滑って転ぶところだった
Also, does もう少しで simply just add emphasis that something was very close? And can it be used with both?
1 Like
Good question! そうになった focuses on what something ‘seemed like’, while ところだった focuses on the actual reality of the situation. In the examples you presented, here’s how I see them -
With 滑って転びそうになった, it would be more likely that someone would say this about someone that they saw almost fall, rather than themselves. If you almost fell yourself, you would have knowledge of if you were actually about to fall or not, so そうになる would be less natural.
With 滑って転ぶところだった, it would be perfectly natural to say this one about almost falling yourself, as you’d have intimate knowledge of whether you were actually about to fall or not.