Greetings everyone,
What is the difference between 食べてない and 食べない?
I was studying the sentence 弁当はほとんど食べてないけど、おやつは全部食べた and I cant figure out why it is 食べてない instead of 食べない?
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Using 食べない would be incorrect as that is used for future actions, or habitual actions, and this sentence is in the past tense, since it ends with 食べた. It would be like saying, “I barely eat Bento, but I ate all of the snacks.” Sounds weird, even in English.
That said, I would’ve expected 食べなかった instead of 食べてない, but I’m not 100% about that part.
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This might be signaling a continued state which is why the 〜ている form is being used. Though regardless as Jose782 said, 食べない would never work here.
弁当はほとんど食べてないけど、おやつは全部食べた
My bento remains mostly uneaten, but I ate all the snacks
–vs–
弁当はほとんど食べなかったけど、おやつは全部食べた
I didn’t eat all my bento, but ate all the snacks
The latter places emphasis on your action of not eating all the bento, as opposed to the former where we’re emphasizing that the bento remains in a partially eaten/mostly uneaten state. (being in a continued state of incomplete eaten-ness lol)
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