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Sample Sentence with This Expression

危ない橋を渡る (abunai hashi o wataru: to tread on thin ice; go out on a limb; walk a tightrope; take risks)     dangerous + bridge + to cross

その探偵はずいぶん危ない橋を渡ってきた。
Sono tantei wa zuibun abunai hashi o watatte kita.
The detective has a lot of adventures.

探偵 (tantei: detective)     to probe + spy
ずいぶん (zuibun: very, extremely, considerably)

People write this word in hiragana, but if they wanted to use kanji, it would be 随分 (to let oneself do as one pleases + extent). Wow, that first kanji contains four components (, movement.png, , and ) that can all serve as radicals! The is a stretch, but Nelson says it’s a variant of the radical . (I can’t find a kanji with a radical, but never mind!)

More on

危ない (abunai: dangerous)

Note how “dangerous” doesn’t make it into the English version of the sentence.

As for -てきた (-te kita), I’m forever confused by -てくる (-te kuru) constructions. When the くる doesn’t literally mean “to come to a place,” -てくる usually means “to come about, come to, begin.” A Dictionary of Basic Grammar says this structure expresses inception or continuation of something up to the present moment. For example:

Inception:
テニスをしていたら急に雨が降ってきた
Tenisu o shite itara kyū ni ame ga futte kita.
While we were playing tennis, it suddenly began to rain.

急に (kyū ni: suddenly)
(ame: rain)
(fu(ru): to fall, descend)

Up to Now:
私は歴史が少し分かってきた
Watashi wa rekishi ga sukoshi wakatte kita.
Now I have begun to understand history.

(watashi: I)
歴史 (rekishi: history)     to elapse + history
少し (sukoshi: a little)
(wa(karu): to understand)

In the sentence about the detective, the -てきた expresses continuation of something up to the present moment. In other words, this structure provides the sense of a present-perfect tense, according to a native speaker I consulted. The detective has crossed a lot of very dangerous bridges.

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