more verb stuff

[Mirage]

I was practicing te form uses. I came across :

話していたんです。

hanashite itan desu.

Which i beleive means, "was speaking"

i know itan is the past form of iru, but whats the difference between

いたんです and いました


Can you say "話していました" ?

[Glenn]

Originally posted by Mirage
I was practicing te form uses. I came across :

話していたんです。

hanashite itan desu.

Which i beleive means, "was speaking"

It does indeed mean that.

i know itan is the past form of iru, but whats the difference between

いたんです and いました

Well, in standard Japanese (Tokyo dialect) there is no inflection "itan". What you have here is actually the affirmation suffix のだ (http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/~ts/japanese/emotion.html#affirmation). The difference between 話していた and 話していました is merely one of formality, with the latter being more formal.

[Mirage]

Many thanks