You already met 行く and 来る as verbs of motion — "go" (away from me) and "come" (toward me). This page is about what happens when you bolt them onto a て-form and talk not about movement through space, but change through time. 〜ていく projects a change forward, away from now into the future; 〜てくる traces a change that has developed up to now. It is the same go/come deixis you know from motion with 〜ていく／〜てくる — only here the axis is time.
The vantage point is always "now"
The one idea that makes this pair predictable is that both are anchored to the present moment, and each points a different way from it. 来る (come) is motion arriving here, so 〜てくる draws a change toward the present — "it has come to be this way, reaching now." 行く (go) is motion departing away, so 〜ていく sends a change forward from the present into the future — "it will go on becoming this way, from now on."
〜てくる: change that has reached the present
Use 〜てくる — almost always in its past form 〜てきた — for a development that started earlier and has built up to the present moment. English usually renders this with the present perfect or "has been ...-ing."
この10年で、外国人観光客がずいぶん増えてきた。
kono jūnen de, gaikokujin kankōkyaku ga zuibun fuete kita
Over the past ten years, foreign tourists have increased a great deal.
毎日練習して、日本語が上手になってきた。
mainichi renshū shite, nihongo ga jōzu ni natte kita
I've been practicing every day, and my Japanese has been getting better.
少しずつだけど、貯金が増えてきたよ。
sukoshi zutsu da kedo, chokin ga fuete kita yo
Little by little, but my savings have been growing.
In each, the change runs from some earlier point up to the here-and-now, and the speaker stands at the finish line looking back over the trend that arrived at their feet.
〜ていく: change that projects into the future
Use 〜ていく — often in the plain non-past 〜ていく, or 〜ていくだろう／〜ていきます — for a change that will go on developing from now forward. English reaches for "will keep ...-ing" or "will go on ...-ing."
日本の人口は、これからも減っていくだろう。
nihon no jinkō wa, kore kara mo hette iku darō
Japan's population will most likely keep on shrinking from here.
これからも、日本語の勉強を頑張っていきます。
kore kara mo, nihongo no benkyō o ganbatte ikimasu
I'll keep working hard at my Japanese studies from now on.
子供って、あっという間に大きくなっていくね。
kodomo tte, atto iu ma ni ōkiku natte iku ne
Kids just keep getting bigger before you know it, don't they.
Notice how これから ("from now") and これからも ("going forward") pair naturally with ていく — they mark the very forward-facing vantage the auxiliary already carries. Saying これからも…てきた would pull against itself.
The clean split: past-facing vs future-facing
Because the two auxiliaries divide the timeline cleanly at "now," near-identical sentences part ways purely by which side of the present they face:
だんだん本当のことが分かってきた。
dandan hontō no koto ga wakatte kita
I've gradually come to understand the truth.
練習を続ければ、きっとよくなっていくよ。
renshū o tsuzukereba, kitto yoku natte iku yo
If you keep practicing, it'll surely keep getting better.
分かってきた looks back: the understanding accumulated up to now. よくなっていく looks forward: the improvement will continue from now. Same becoming-verb, opposite temporal arrows.
| Direction | Auxiliary | Typical tense | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| past → now | 〜てくる | 〜てきた (past) | "has come to be / has been ...-ing" |
| now → future | 〜ていく | 〜ていく (non-past) | "will go on / keep ...-ing" |
Changing adjectives need なる first
A change described by an adjective can't take ていく／てくる directly — you first turn the adjective into a verb of becoming with なる (〜くなる for い-adjectives, 〜になる for な-adjectives and nouns), and that takes the auxiliary. See なる: expressing "become".
急に寒くなってきたから、上着を持っていこう。
kyū ni samuku natte kita kara, uwagi o motte ikō
It's suddenly gotten cold, so let's bring a jacket.
これから、どんどん暖かくなっていくはずだよ。
kore kara, dondon atatakaku natte iku hazu da yo
It should keep getting warmer and warmer from here on.
A note on 〜ていった: away from a past point
Both auxiliaries can also anchor to a past reference point rather than "now." 〜てきた traces change up to the present; 〜ていった narrates a change moving away from some past moment — the vantage sits back in the story, not at your feet. This is the storytelling form (literary).
景気が悪くなって、町から人がどんどん減っていった。
keiki ga waruku natte, machi kara hito ga dondon hette itta
The economy went bad, and people kept drifting away from the town.
Here the shrinking recedes into the past, away from the narrated moment. If you instead meant "the town's population has been falling right up to today," you'd switch to 減ってきた. Keep the rule of thumb: reaching now → てきた; leaving a point → ていった (from a past moment) or ていく (from now).
How this differs from English
English has no grammatical "go/come" for aspect. It leans on separate adverbial machinery — "has been increasing," "will keep increasing," "gradually came to" — and there's no built-in signal for which direction in time the change runs; you infer it from tense and context. Japanese bakes the direction straight into the verb complex, through the same spatial metaphor English only ever uses literally ("things are looking up," "winter is coming"). The payoff: once you feel くる as "toward now" and いく as "away into the future," you can pick the right one for changes you've never met before, exactly the way a native speaker does.
Common mistakes
Using ていく for a change that led up to the present. This is the number-one swap. A trend that reaches now is past-facing — it needs てきた.
❌ 最近、日本語が上手になっていった。
saikin, nihongo ga jōzu ni natte itta
Incorrect for 'lately my Japanese has gotten better' — ていった sends the change away into the past.
✅ 最近、日本語が上手になってきた。
saikin, nihongo ga jōzu ni natte kita
Lately my Japanese has been getting better.
Using てくる for a future-facing trend. A trend running from now onward is forward-facing — it needs ていく.
❌ これからも頑張ってきます。
kore kara mo ganbatte kimasu
Incorrect for 'I'll keep trying hard from now on' — これから points forward, so it can't take てくる.
✅ これからも頑張っていきます。
kore kara mo ganbatte ikimasu
I'll keep trying hard from now on.
Attaching ていく／てくる to an adjective without なる. Adjectives can't be the base directly.
❌ だんだん寒くてきた。
dandan samukute kita
Incorrect — the adjective must first become a verb of change: 寒くなる.
✅ だんだん寒くなってきた。
dandan samuku natte kita
It's gradually gotten cold.
Forgetting the て-form. The auxiliary attaches to the て-form, never the dictionary form.
❌ これから人口が増えるていく。
kore kara jinkō ga fueru te iku
Incorrect — needs the te-form 増えて, not the dictionary form 増える.
✅ これから人口が増えていく。
kore kara jinkō ga fuete iku
The population will keep increasing from here on.
Confusing ていった (past narration) with てきた (reaching now). They attach to opposite reference points.
❌ この10年で観光客が増えていった。
kono jūnen de kankōkyaku ga fuete itta
Odd for 'over the past ten years tourists have increased, up to today' — ていった recedes into the past instead.
✅ この10年で観光客が増えてきた。
kono jūnen de kankōkyaku ga fuete kita
Over the past ten years, tourists have increased (right up to now).
Key takeaways
- Both are anchored to "now": てくる is the arrow coming in from the past; ていく is the arrow going out to the future.
- 〜てきた = "has been ...-ing / has come to be," a change reaching the present. 〜ていく = "will keep ...-ing," a change projecting from now forward.
- Adjective changes need なる first: 寒くなってきた, 暖かくなっていく.
- 〜ていった narrates a change receding from a past vantage — don't use it for trends that reach today.
- The whole system is the spatial go/come metaphor transplanted onto time; feel the deixis and you can predict the right form every time.
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- 〜てくる: Onset of Sensations & ChangeN3 — A special 〜てくる that marks the emergence of a sensation, perception, or spontaneous change as it comes on and reaches you — 雨が降ってきた, お腹が空いてきた, 見えてきた.
- 〜ていく／〜てくる: Motion with an ActionN3 — How te-form + いく／くる attaches physical direction to an action — いく moves away from the speaker, くる moves toward them and often frames a there-and-back round trip anchored to where the speaker stands.
- 〜くなる / 〜になる: BecomeN4 — How to express a change of state with なる — い-adjectives take 〜く, na-adjectives and nouns take 〜に, and the change is always something that happens by itself.
- 〜ている: The Two-Meaning Aspect MarkerN4 — 〜ている carries two meanings — the progressive 'is doing' and the resultant state 'has done and remains' — and the verb's own aktionsart, not the speaker, decides which one you get.