Choice of tense with そばから?

Question

When using そばから in the sense of "as soon as", everything I find says that you can use either た form/past tense before it, or dictionary form, but not what the difference is. Sometimes people even use both forms in the same sentence: > 我が家もそうなのだけれど、片付けるそばから散らかすし拭いたそばからこぼされる。 So is there any difference in nuance between these? 1. 片付けるそばから散らかす 2. 片付けたそばから散らかす 3. 片付けてるそばから散らかす

Answer 1

The past tense focuses on a completed action:

聞いたそばから忘れてしまう - As soon as I've heard something, I forget it.

読んだそばから抜いていって何も覚えていない - As soon as I've read something, I don't remember what it was about.

Present tense focuses on a habitual pattern:

子供は作るそばから食べてしまうので、作っても作っても追いつかない - As soon as I make something, my kids eat it so even if I cook and cook there's no keeping up.

我が家もそうなのだけれど、片付けるそばから散らかすし拭いたそばからこぼされる。 Our house is like this: as soon as we clean up, it's messy; as soon as we wipe something up, something spills. (on going struggle)

片付けるそばから散らかす - as soon as we clean it, it gets messy (on going)

片付けたそばから散らかす - as soon as I've cleaned it, it gets messy (on going, but sounds more punctuated)

片付けてるそばから散らかす - doesn't work because TE-IRU persists for a span of time. This verb type would "be as soon as we're cleaning it."