スマホを見るともなく見ていたら通知が届いた。
- I was looking at my phone absentmindedly when a notification arrived.

スマホを見るともなく見ていたら通知が届いた。 meaning: I was looking at my smartphone without really looking, and a notification arrived.

The sentence's structure is complex, combining several grammatical elements to convey a nuanced meaning. The core structure can be broken down as follows: ⚫︎スマホを見る - The base verb, "to look at one's smartphone." ⚫︎となく - This expression indicates doing something without conscious intention. ⚫︎見ていたら- A combination of the verb stem, a te-form, and the conditional-temporal particle たら, indicating an action that was happening and then something else happened. ⚫︎通知が届いた - The main clause: "A notification arrived." This part is the result of the action described in the first part of the sentence.

This is a fixed expression indicating an action performed "without consciously doing" something, or "without really/truly..." ⚫︎It's used to describe actions that are done absentmindedly, unintentionally, or casually. ⚫︎The structure is usually verb (dictionary form) + と + なく + verb. ⚫︎In our sentence, 見る (to look) is used twice, once in the dictionary form and another with ていたら for describing ongoing action, forming the full expression 見るともなく見ていたら. ⚫︎Example: 彼は考えようともせず、返事をした。 - He replied without even trying to think about it.

たら is a conditional particle, used to express a conditional relationship (if/when) or a temporal sequence (when/after). Its usage depends on the context. ⚫︎In this sentence, たら is used in the temporal sense. ⚫︎The ていたら form, derived from the te-form of the verb + いたら, implies that the speaker was in the middle of looking at their phone and then the notification arrived. This implies that the notification's arrival happened as a consequence or concurrently with the action described. ⚫︎Example: 夏になったら、海に行きたい。 - If/When it becomes summer, I want to go to the beach.

The verb 見る (to look) is conjugated in several ways in this sentence. ⚫︎見る (dictionary form) forms the basis of the first instance of looking at the phone. ⚫︎The te-form, 見て is used to create the ていたら form. The te-form is used with auxiliary verbs to create different tenses and states. ⚫︎The conditional form, 見たら is another grammatical variation of 見る. ⚫︎Understanding verb conjugations is essential for mastering Japanese grammar. Mastering verb conjugations is an important step to understand and speak Japanese.

The auxiliary verb いる (to be/to exist) is used in combination with the te-form of 見る. ⚫︎The ている form, in this case, 見ていたら, indicates a state of continuous action, the speaker was in the state of looking at their smartphone. The auxiliary verb emphasizes an ongoing action. ⚫︎This combination helps to create the nuance of the action happening over a period of time. ⚫︎Example: 子供が走っている。 - The child is running.