Breakdown of watasi ha kodomo no koro, haisya ni iku to itumo kowakute naite ita.
Questions & Answers about watasi ha kodomo no koro, haisya ni iku to itumo kowakute naite ita.
子供のころ means “when I was a child” or “in my childhood,” focusing on a period of time.
子供のころ
- Nuance: a broader “childhood period,” kind of vague and continuous.
- Very natural for talking about memories and habits in childhood.
子供の時
- Literally “the time when (I was) a child.”
- Slightly more neutral; can feel a bit more “point in time” than ころ, though in many contexts they overlap.
In this sentence, 子供のころ nicely matches the idea of a general habit in childhood (always cried, whenever going to the dentist), so it fits very well.
Here の works like a linker: it connects 子供 (“child”) to ころ (“time/period”).
- 子供 + の + ころ → 子供のころ
Literally: “the period of being a child.”
You can think of ころ as needing something in front of it to specify “the period of what?”:
- 学生のころ – when I was a student
- 若いころ – when I was young
So の functions similarly to “of” or to an adjectival linker in English: “child-hood period.”
Both ころ and ごろ relate to “around a certain time,” but they’re used a bit differently.
ころ
- Often used for a period of life or a relatively vague stretch of time.
- Common with states like being a child, student, young, etc.
- Examples:
- 子供のころ – when I was a child
- 高校生のころ – when I was a high school student
ごろ
- More about “around (a specific time)” on the clock or calendar.
- Examples:
- ３時ごろ – around 3 o’clock
- 2000年ごろ – around the year 2000
Using 子供ごろ would be incorrect; ころ is the natural one for this “life period” meaning.
Both are possible; they just highlight different things as the topic.
私は 子供のころ、…
- Topic: 私 (“as for me”)
- 子供のころ acts as a time phrase modifying the rest of the sentence.
- Nuance: “As for me, when I was a child, I always cried…”
子供のころは、 歯医者に行くと…
- Topic: 子供のころ (“as for when I was a child”)
- Nuance: “In my childhood, whenever I went to the dentist, I always cried…”
Both are grammatically correct and natural. Changing the は changes what you’re “framing” as the main topic, but the basic meaning stays very similar.
In 歯医者に行く, に marks the destination of movement:
- 歯医者に行く – go to the dentist
Comparisons:
に – destination, presence at a place
- 学校に行く – go to school
- 家にいる – be at home
へ – also destination, but emphasizes direction more than the final location
- 歯医者へ行く is also possible and natural, but に is more common in everyday speech here.
で – place where an action happens
- 歯医者で歯を抜いた – (I) had a tooth pulled at the dentist
So here, に is correct because it’s marking “the place you go to.”
The と after 行く is a conditional と, and here it’s used in a “whenever / when(ever)” sense:
- 歯医者に行くと いつも怖くて泣いていた。
→ “Whenever I went to the dentist, I was always scared and cried.”
This ～と pattern often means:
- “When(ever) X happens, Y (always/inevitably) happens.”
Examples:
- 春になると 暖かくなる。 – When spring comes, it gets warm.
- そのボタンを押すと ドアが開く。 – If/when you press that button, the door opens.
In your sentence, 行くと + いつも gives the sense of a repeated situation: each time you went to the dentist, you ended up crying.
怖くて is the て-form of the i-adjective 怖い (“scary / afraid”).
Here, the て-form has two roles:
Linking two states/actions
- It connects 怖くて (“(I was) scared”) with 泣いていた (“was crying”).
- Roughly: “I was scared and (so) was crying.”
Expressing a cause or reason (softly)
- It often implies “because X, Y” in emotional or physical reactions.
- 怖くて泣いていた ≈ “(I) was scared and therefore cried.”
You could also say:
- 怖いので泣いていた。 – (more explanatory)
- 怖いから泣いていた。 – (casual “because”)
But 怖くて泣いていた sounds very natural and is slightly softer and more “flowing.”
In 行くと いつも 怖くて泣いていた, いつも (“always”) modifies the whole “being scared and crying” situation that happens whenever you go to the dentist.
Roughly: “When I went to the dentist, I would always be scared and cry.”
Possible positions (all natural, with slight nuance shifts):
- 歯医者に行くと いつも怖くて泣いていた。
- 歯医者に行くと、怖くて いつも泣いていた。
- いつも、歯医者に行くと怖くて泣いていた。
The core meaning (this happened habitually) stays the same.
Positioning いつも just slightly affects what you mentally group it with, but all these are fine.
泣いていた is the ている form in the past (ていた), attached to 泣く (“to cry”).
- 泣いた – “(I) cried” → simple past, a single completed event.
- 泣いていた – “(I) was crying” / “(I) used to cry” → describes a state or habit in the past.
In this sentence with いつも and 行くと, 泣いていた has a habitual past meaning:
- “I would always end up crying”
- “I used to cry (every time).”
So 泣いていた fits better because it describes a repeated, typical behavior in the past, not just a one-time event.
Yes, 私は can be omitted:
- 子供のころ、歯医者に行くといつも怖くて泣いていた。
This is still understood as “I” because:
- The context is “my childhood,” and you’re talking about your own experience.
- Japanese often drops subjects when they’re clear from context.
General rule of thumb:
- If it’s obvious who is doing the action from earlier sentences or from the situation, you usually omit 私 / あなた / etc.
- You only say 私 explicitly when you need to clarify, emphasize contrast (“I, as opposed to others, …”), or introduce yourself.
So in natural conversation or writing, this sentence would very often appear without 私は.
The sentence as given is in plain (casual) style:
- 行く (plain non-past)
- 泣いていた (plain past progressive)
To make it polite, you’d change the main verbs to ます-form:
- 子供のころ、歯医者に行くといつも怖くて泣いていました。
Differences:
- 泣いていた。 – casual, used in diary, with friends, in informal narration.
- 泣いていました。 – polite, suitable for talking to someone not very close, or in formal settings.
Everything else (particles, adjectives, etc.) stays the same; the politeness is mainly carried by the verb endings.