彼の小説は全部読んでいます。

Sentence Discussions Japanese
#1
English Translation

I have read all his novels.

I am a bit ashamed that I still have these doubts, but…

Shouldn’t this be “I am reading all his novels”?

I know that 〜ています can indicate a state of being, but I cannot see how this would apply here. It might apply, but I don’t see how I can distinguish the two meaning.

I would use 「彼の小説は全部読みました。」to say I read them all…

The second doubt I have is about 全部.

Could this sentence refer to a single novel?
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「背の層と平和」は全部読みました。

Thanks in advance for any clarification.

#2

@mike-lima
Good question!
The original JP/EN pair is correct.

  1. 彼の小説は全部読んでいます。= I keep up with the latest updates on his novels, and I have been doing this for a long time. So, there is no novels that I haven’t read yet.

  2. 彼の小説を一から読んでいます。= I am currently reading his novels from scratch, and I will keep doing it until I complete reading all of his works.

You cannot read all five of his novels simultaneously unless you have ten eyes and five brains to process simultaneously. So, it’s unnatural to say 全部 (all) for the second usage.

English speakers express it in a present perfect form for the first usage. But 全部読んでいます in Japanese is closer to “keeping my novel reading collection fresh” or “always catching up with the latest release of his novels”. So, the connotation of 全部読んでいます is “I will most likely do so when he releases a new one in the future.” The Japanese expression doesn’t capture a certain point in the past, but it’s more like an ongoing process. 全部読んでいます in this particular sentence structure doesn’t mean that “I am currently reading all at this very moment”.

Here is another example using ～います but it doesn’t mean a progressive form.

メアリーは日経新聞を購読しています。= Mary subscribes Nikkei Newspaper.

Apparently, monthly or annual subscription is not progressive action and there is no “at the very moment” connotation. Newspaper subscription is “keeping be valid” in a certain time span, not at a certain point. ～います sometimes means “to be doing it” as a present progressive verb, but it can also functions as a quasi-adjective (i.e. describing the status/condition).
新聞を購読しています and 小説を全部読んでいます have the nuance of “I am a regular reader of X” or “I am **of deep knowledge” of X". います describes the speaker’s status.

彼の小説は全部読みました (have done) is also grammatically correct. But we say 全部読んでいます particularly for living and active novelists. Let’s say, the novelist contributes his works to a monthly magazine. The reader (= the speaker) is a big fan of the novel on the magazine, and is looking forward to the next chapter.

You also need to pay more attention to the difference between particle は and を. Please think yourself why I say 小説は for the first sentence, but I changed to 小説を for the second sentence. This is a quiz :smile:.

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