Meaning of 寒くなる vs. 寒くなっています


Today it crossed my mind how could I translate this, and some confusion arose
with the verbal forms to use.

If I wanted to say "I got cold", I would say

> 寒くなった

However, for "I'm getting cold", I would use

> 寒くなっています

That left me wondering what would 寒くなる mean, as I would also translate this
has "I'm getting cold".

Is there no difference between these in English? If not, what would be the
difference in their meaning?

Side note: I omitted the わたし bit in the sentences before since I'm only
interested in the conjugations.




Actually, because なる is a change of state verb,「寒くなっています」does _not_ mean "it
is getting cold", but rather "it is cold"- or more specifically, that it got
cold and remains in that state.

Any verb that signifies a change in state used with ～ている means that the change
happened in the past and _remains in that state_. That is why, for example,
「死んでいる」 means "is dead", not "is dying".

To properly say that it is _getting_ cold, I would use the -てくる pattern. Thus,
my translation would be:

> 寒くなってきた  
>  It's getting cold.

You can use -てくる with a change in state verb (なる in this case) to show that
something has been gradually changing until now. A more in-depth explanation
on this can be found [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/676/9749).




Actually, because なる is a change of state verb,「寒くなっています」does _not_ mean "it
is getting cold", but rather "it is cold"- or more specifically, that it got
cold and remains in that state.

Any verb that signifies a change in state used with ～ている means that the change
happened in the past and _remains in that state_. That is why, for example,
「死んでいる」 means "is dead", not "is dying".

To properly say that it is _getting_ cold, I would use the -てくる pattern. Thus,
my translation would be:

> 寒くなってきた  
>  It's getting cold.

You can use -てくる with a change in state verb (なる in this case) to show that
something has been gradually changing until now. A more in-depth explanation
on this can be found [here](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/676/9749).

