Expressing a sequence of actions using 〜たとき?


I am aware that one can explain that to things happen at the same time using
_plain non past form_ \+ とき:

> 電車に乗るとき転びました。"I fell when I got on the train (I was going through the door
> when it happened)"

I am not quite sure about the following nuance, though : _plain past form_ \+
とき means the first action was over when the second happened :

> 電車に乗ったとき転びました。 "I fell when I got on the train (I was already inside the
> train when it happened)"

Would it _roughly_ mean the same thing as :

> 電車に乗った後転びました。"After I got on the train, I fell"

Eventually, would it be correct to express that I read a book before I went to
sleep using :

> 本を読んだとき寝ました。




Yes, 電車に乗ったとき転んだ is roughly the same as 電車に乗った後転んだ. However, there is a slight
difference. The former implies that the action 転ぶ happened _right after_ the
action 電車に乗る: _I fell just after I got on a train._ 電車に乗った後転んだ does not have
this implication, and it just means: _I fell after I got on a train_.

本を読んだとき寝た sounds strange whereas 本を読んだ後寝た sounds perfectly normal. I am not
sure why, but I suspect that if an action V takes time, it is unnatural to use
Vしたとき and instead we use some other constructs such as Vしているとき, Vした後, and
Vし終わったとき depending on what we mean by it.




Yes, 電車に乗ったとき転んだ is roughly the same as 電車に乗った後転んだ. However, there is a slight
difference. The former implies that the action 転ぶ happened _right after_ the
action 電車に乗る: _I fell just after I got on a train._ 電車に乗った後転んだ does not have
this implication, and it just means: _I fell after I got on a train_.

本を読んだとき寝た sounds strange whereas 本を読んだ後寝た sounds perfectly normal. I am not
sure why, but I suspect that if an action V takes time, it is unnatural to use
Vしたとき and instead we use some other constructs such as Vしているとき, Vした後, and
Vし終わったとき depending on what we mean by it.

