# 出会っていたかもしれない



## Pacerier

Hi all, I've posted this question in another forum before but I couldn't really understand the explanation.

I read in a book that says when we use ~たら for a past tense clause, it means "when".


So for example 「喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会った。」 means "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki.


I'm curious why couldn't the sentence above mean "If I had went to the coffee shop, I would have seen Suzuki"?


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## Ocham

Pacerier said:


> 「喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会った。」 means "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki.
> "If I had went to the coffee shop, I would have seen Suzuki"?



It simply depends on the form of *the main clause*. For examples:

喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会っていたかもしれない*。
If I had gone to the coffee shop, *I would have seen *Suzuki.
喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会えたかもしれない*。
If I had gone to the coffee shop, *I could have seen *Suzuki.
喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会えるかもしれない*。
If I go to the coffee shop, *I will be able to see *Suzuki.
If I went to the coffee shop, *I might be able to see *Suzuki.

喫茶店に行ったら does not determine tense nor mood.


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## uchi.m

Pacerier said:


> So for example 「喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに出会った。」 means "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki.


This construction implies a _guess-what_ feeling to the sentence: _as I went to the cafeteria, guess what? I met Suzuki._


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## Pacerier

Ocham said:


> It simply depends on the form of *the main clause*. For examples:
> 
> 喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会っていたかもしれない*。
> If I had gone to the coffee shop, *I would have seen *Suzuki.
> 喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会えたかもしれない*。
> If I had gone to the coffee shop, *I could have seen *Suzuki.
> 喫茶店に行ったら、鈴木さんに*出会えるかもしれない*。
> If I go to the coffee shop, *I will be able to see *Suzuki.
> If I went to the coffee shop, *I might be able to see *Suzuki.





Ocham said:


> 喫茶店に行ったら does not determine tense nor mood.



By the way, in your first sentence, why did you use 出会っていた instead of 出会った?

Is 「喫茶店に行ったら、鈴村さんに出会ったかもしれない。」 also grammatical and mean "If I had went to the coffee shop, *I would have seen *Suzuki."?


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## Pacerier

uchi.m said:


> This construction implies a _guess-what_ feeling to the sentence: _as I went to the cafeteria, guess what? I met Suzuki._



Hmm, how do we say "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki"  without that _guess-what _​feeling?


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## Ocham

喫茶店に行ったら、鈴村さんに出会ったかもしれない is also OK.


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## uchi.m

Pacerier said:


> Hmm, how do we say "When I went to the coffee shop, I saw Suzuki"  without that _guess-what _​feeling?


喫茶店へ行った時、鈴木さんに出会った。


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## Pacerier

Ocham said:


> 喫茶店に行ったら、鈴村さんに出会ったかもしれない is also OK.



I'm rather confused here, what's the difference between ~出会った~ and ~出会っていた~ ?


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## uchi.m

Pacerier said:


> I'm rather confused here, what's the difference between ~出会った~ and ~出会っていた~ ?


None whatsoever. In this case, 出会った is a corruption of 出会っていた. It's chatspeak.


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## Flaminius

To my mind 出会っていた is more natural.  Most Japanese verbs are regarded to take instant effects and 出会った in the context would mean the speaker sees Tanaka at the café and makes off the next moment.  It may be Tanaka who goes away.  The point is the conjugation suggests that the meeting did not last more than a second.  As the intent of meeting someone is not just seeing their face for a second or two, you must use 出会っていた in order to delay the verb to complete its content action.


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## Pacerier

Hey thanks all for the help!


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