Once you can build a modifying clause, the next question is which tense to put inside it — する or した, 食（た）べる or 食べた. The trap for English speakers is to copy the tense of the English main verb. Japanese does not work that way. The tense of a modifying clause is relative: it is measured against the timeframe of the head noun's event, not against the English main verb. And there is a second twist that English handles with participles: inside a modifier, the past form た frequently signals a resultant state ("in the state of having…") rather than a past event at all.
Non-past vs past inside the modifier: it is relative
Both plain non-past (走（はし）る, 走っている) and plain past (走った) appear freely inside modifiers. The choice tells you when the clause's event happens relative to the head noun:
- Non-past → the event is ongoing at, or comes after, the head noun's reference time.
- Past (た) → the event is completed before the head noun's reference time.
向こうで走っている人は弟です。
mukō de hashitte iru hito wa otōto desu
The person running over there is my little brother.
さっき走った人はもう帰りました。
sakki hashitta hito wa mō kaerimashita
The person who ran just now has already gone home.
The clearest demonstration is a pair where the main verb stays fixed in the past while the modifier tense flips:
東京へ行く人に会った。
Tōkyō e iku hito ni atta
I met a person who is going to Tokyo. (the going is still upcoming relative to the meeting)
東京へ行った人に会った。
Tōkyō e itta hito ni atta
I met a person who had (already) gone to Tokyo. (the going was complete before the meeting)
Both main verbs are 会った ("met", past). Yet 行く vs 行った is decided entirely by whether the trip is before or after the meeting — the head noun's timeframe — not by the English main clause being past. This is the single fact to internalize: reset your tense reference to the head noun, then ask "before, during, or after?"
た as a resultant state, not past time
Here is where Japanese diverges most sharply from the English "past tense" label. Very often, た inside a modifier does not locate an event in the past — it describes the state that resulted from a change. English does the same job with a past participle: a broken cup, a bent road, a tired face. These are not statements about when something happened; they describe how the thing is now.
割れたコップを捨てた。
wareta koppu o suteta
I threw away the broken cup.
この先は曲がった道が続いている。
kono saki wa magatta michi ga tsuzuite iru
Beyond here a winding road continues.
めがねをかけた人が受付にいます。
megane o kaketa hito ga uketsuke ni imasu
There is a person wearing glasses at the reception desk.
割れたコップ is not "a cup that (once) broke and is now fine" — it is a cup in the broken state. 曲がった道 does not report a moment when the road bent; it describes a road that is winding. And めがねをかけた人 is "a person wearing glasses" (currently), not merely "a person who put glasses on at some past moment." The た here means "in the state resulting from" the verb — a stative reading, delivered by a form that also happens to be the past tense.
疲れた顔をしているね、大丈夫？
tsukareta kao o shite iru ne, daijōbu
You look tired — literally, you have a tired face. Are you okay?
太った猫がソファで寝ている。
futotta neko ga sofa de nete iru
A fat cat is sleeping on the sofa. (太った = in the state of having put on weight)
This is why so many everyday adjective-like descriptions in Japanese are actually past-form verbs: 太った (fat), とがった (pointed), ありふれた (commonplace), 優（すぐ）れた (excellent). They freeze a change-of-state verb into the state it produces. Recognizing this stops you from mis-parsing 曲がった道 as "a road that turned."
ている vs た: ongoing state vs resultant state
For change-of-state verbs, both 〜ている and 〜た can describe a current state, with a slight difference in feel. 〜ている foregrounds the state as currently holding and observable; 〜た foregrounds the result as an attribute of the noun.
開いている窓から風が入ってくる。
aite iru mado kara kaze ga haitte kuru
Wind is coming in through the open window. (the window is, right now, in an open state)
これから食べる料理の写真を撮った。
kore kara taberu ryōri no shashin o totta
I took a photo of the food we're about to eat. (これから食べる — the eating is still upcoming)
Notice これから食べる: the non-past 食べる is correct even though 撮った (took) is past, because the eating comes after the reference point. Anchor to the head noun, every time.
Stative verbs: some heads want ている, not た
A handful of very common verbs describe ongoing states almost exclusively in the ている form when they modify a noun. 住（す）む ("to take up residence") means the act of moving in; the state of living somewhere is 住んでいる. 知（し）る ("to come to know") is the moment of learning; the state of knowing is 知っている.
田中さんが住んでいる町は、海のすぐそばだ。
Tanaka-san ga sunde iru machi wa, umi no sugu soba da
The town Tanaka lives in is right by the sea.
この道をよく知っている人に聞いてみよう。
kono michi o yoku shitte iru hito ni kiite miyō
Let's ask someone who knows this road well.
住む町 would read as "a town one moves to (in general or in future)", and 知る人 as "a person who comes to know" — not the present states the modifiers want. Those states ride on ている. This dovetails with the resultant-state た: both ている and た describe how the noun is, differing only in whether the state is presented as ongoing (ている) or as a settled attribute (た).
Common mistakes
❌ 東京へ行った人に会った。
Wrong if you mean 'someone who is going to Tokyo' — this copies the English past main verb. If the trip is still upcoming, the modifier must be non-past 行く.
✅ 東京へ行く人に会った。
Tōkyō e iku hito ni atta
I met a person who is going to Tokyo.
❌ 割れるコップを捨てた。
Wrong — 割れる (non-past) means 'a cup that breaks / will break'. A cup already in the broken state needs the resultant-state た.
✅ 割れたコップを捨てた。
wareta koppu o suteta
I threw away the broken cup.
❌ 昨日会う人はとても親切でした。
Wrong — 昨日 fixes the event in the past, so the modifier cannot be non-past 会う.
✅ 昨日会った人はとても親切でした。
kinō atta hito wa totemo shinsetsu deshita
The person I met yesterday was very kind.
❌ めがねをかける人が受付にいます。
Wrong for 'is wearing' — かける (non-past) reads as habitual/future 'puts on'. The state of wearing them now is めがねをかけた.
✅ めがねをかけた人が受付にいます。
megane o kaketa hito ga uketsuke ni imasu
A person wearing glasses is at the reception desk.
Key takeaways
- Modifier tense is relative to the head noun's timeframe, not to the main verb: 東京へ行く人に会った vs 東京へ行った人に会った both have a past main clause.
- Non-past inside a modifier = ongoing at, or after, the reference time; た = completed before it.
- Inside a modifier, た very often means a resultant state — 割れたコップ (broken), 曲がった道 (winding), めがねをかけた人 (wearing glasses) — the job English gives to past participles.
- Many stative "adjectives" (太った, とがった, 優れた) are really change-of-state verbs frozen in their result.
- Do not copy the English main-verb tense. Re-anchor to the head noun and ask: before, during, or after?
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- Relative Clauses (連体修飾): No Relative PronounN4 — Japanese has no relative pronoun — no 'that', 'which', or 'who'; to modify a noun with a whole clause you simply place a plain-form clause directly in front of it, exactly the way an adjective sits in front of a noun.
- Gap-Type Modifying Clauses (内の関係)N3 — The prototypical relative clause — the 内の関係 or 'inner relation' — is one where the head noun fills a gap inside the clause: 私が読んだ本 corresponds to 私が本を読んだ, with 本 as the object of 読む; a single 'un-relativize' test tells you cleanly whether a clause is this gap type.
- 〜まま: In an Unchanged StateN3 — 〜まま is a bound noun meaning 'still in the same state', built on a resultant-state た-clause or noun + の — it freezes a condition and says a second action happens without that condition changing, which is exactly what separates 立ったまま食べる ('eat while standing') from the two-simultaneous-actions 〜ながら.