Hey and Good luck on JLPT everybody! And if you are after, then this might be a fun read to get read of stress.
Have you been confused by all the ている functions? Well then, you are not alone! And this short article will be perfect for you, explaining its basic functions.
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What is ている？
Well, ている is composed of て form and いる – which original meaning was ‘to sit’ or ‘to stay in the spot’. This to ‘stay in the spot meaning’ got eventually extended to various uses. The meaning of ている might depend on the verb it is used with, adverbs, or context.
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**By the way,** verbs indicating state like いる (to exist), ある (to exist), 要（い）る (to need, by the way, while in modern Japanese ‘to exist’ and ‘to need’ are homophones, in the past they weren’t and ‘to exist’ was pronounced ‘wiru’) and all potential forms with exception of できる are not used with ている。
**The first usage** that comes to mind is indicating that some action continues (similar to English present continuous tense – ‘to be \~ing’). This use can be easily recognized when expressions like 今 are used.
彼女は今マフィンを*食べている*。
She is eating a muffin right now.
メアリーは今自分の部屋でテレビを*見ている*。
Mary is watching TV in her room right now.
Of course, indicators like 今 are not always present, so we have to depend on context, or if no context is present (like in some grammar books) we can assume this or another meaning.
彼らは天気について*話しています*。
They are talking about the weather (right now).
They (often) talk about the weather. (another use of ている which will be explained below).
Not complicated so far right?
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Well, the problem is the **other use of ている when it indicated a continuation of state**. In my Japanese teaching career, I’ve noticed that this causes the most problems for the students, so I will share some tips.
In this use, ている indicates a state left after the action of a verb that indicates change. In other words, the change already happened at some point, and its result still remains to the present moment.
This use can be indicated with an expression indicating completion like ‘もう’, ‘すでに’ meaning ‘already’.
This can be translated to English ‘to be…’ or to (present perfect tense) ‘has…, have’.
Example:
死ぬ – ‘to die’
お前はもう死ん**でいる。**
You are already dead. (Someone died at some point and the result remains).
腐る – ‘to go bad’ (indicates change)
オレンジは*腐っている*。
The orange is rotten. (The orange went bad at some point and the result remains (is rotten).
結婚する – ‘to get married’ (indicates change)
メアリーは結婚している。
Mary is married. (She got married at some point and the result remains)
知る – ‘to get to know
道はよく*知っている*
I know the path well. (I got to know it at some point in time and the result remains – I know it)
This also applies to verbs indicating movement from one position to another – 行く、来る、帰る。
So if someone says:
**ジョンは駅に***来ている*\*\*。\*\*
**It will mean that:**
**John has come to the station. (John is in the station) and not ‘is coming to the station**
So if you want to indicate ongoing movement, you should use a different expression – ‘向かう’ – ‘to head to…’
ジョンは駅に向かっている。
John is going to the station (right now).
You can do some ‘thought’ experiments to check if the verb is an ‘action’ or ‘change’ verb.
Simply check if the verb allows duration, or if the verb can be repeated.
Usually, if it’s the case, then the verb belongs to the ‘action’ group and with ている, it will indicate ongoing action. Otherwise, it indicates a continuation of state.
Example:
トシさんは昨日二時間テレビを見た。
Toshi watched TV for two hours yesterday. (sounds natural with duration, so it’s an action verb)
たけしさんは二時間死にました。
Takeshi died for two hours. (Sounds odd, so it’s a ‘change’ verb).
Also, 見る can be repeated and 死ぬ (for the same person, at least in theory) cannot. This is another way to tell.
Or if this sounds complicated just memorize this list of verbs indicating change:
知る – to **get** to know
腐る – to rot
結婚する – to **get** married
行く – to go
来る – to come
帰る – to return
持ってくる – to bring (something)
連れてくる – to bring (a person)
出かける – to go out
なる – to become
乗る – to **get** on
座る – to sit down
死ぬ – to die
消す – to erase
忘れる – to forget
借りる – to borrow
降りる – to **get** off, to get down
太る – to **get** fat, to gain weight
痩せる – to become thin, to lose weight
着る – to **put** on
始まる – to start
閉まる – to close
並ぶ – to line up
怒る – to **get** angry
持つ – to hold
You probably noticed that many of those verbs are intransitive, another indicator.
(in short, intransitive verb is verb happening by itself, verbs that do not take direct objects like
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**している can also indicate** color, state, shape, appearance that can be visually seen:
オレンジは丸い形をしている。
Oranges are round.
氷山はどうして青い*色をしている*のでしょう？
Why are icebergs blue?
彼女は青い顔をしている。
She looks pale.
彼はヤクザのような姿*をしている*。
He looks like Yakuza.
彼女は看護師のような*格好をしている*。
She is dressed like a nurse.
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**The last use of the ている indicates repeating an action, habit, or occupation.**
This is easily recognizable with phrases indicating frequency like 毎日、毎晩、毎週、よく and so on or by context. If no context is present, the meaning might be unclear between the first use and this one.
A: お仕事はなんですか？
B: スーパーで売っています。
A: What is your occupation?
B: I sell at the supermarket.
彼は毎日走っています。
He runs every single day.
さかもとは本を読んでいる。
Sakamoto reads books. OR Sakamoto is reading a book (right now).
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But in real life, sentences without context are almost nonexistent, so this should not be a problem!
But, what about stuff like てる、てて 、とる or てん？
Well, those are all contractions of ている。 The most common contraction is skipping い, which gives us
ている→てる
ています→てます
ていて→てて
ていた→てた
And so on.
死んでいる→お前まえはもう死しん**でる**。
You are already dead.
続けていて→続け*てて*下さい
Keep on working.
Another common contraction is とる which comes from ておる, where おる is a humble word meaning ‘to exist’. とる is simply the contraction of that:
ている→ておる→とる
でいる→でおる→どる
Of course, those don’t sound humble at all!
私は毎日、お茶を飲のんど**る**。
I drink tea every day.
The last one is てん。This is so called nasalized sound change (because n is a nasal sound).
The る is changed to ん when followed by explanatory の or なら。
何やってるの？→
何やってんの？ — region neutral
何やっとんの？– 関西弁
What are you doing?
思っているのだけど →
思ってるのだけど →
思ってるんだけど →
思ってんだけど
I think but…
足が腫れているなら医者に行くべきだ →
足が腫れてんなら医者へいけよ
If your feet are swollen you should go to the doctor.
(This is what my friend told me a few days ago after he has seen my broken leg).
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I hope it helps,
Cheers!
I am mrnoone, and this was Brief Japanese.
If you are curious about more posts like this, you can follow me on reddit :>
[All my articles are archivized on my blog.](https://briefjapanese.fun/)
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15 comments
This is a wonderful post, thank you.
I wonder if some state words can still mean continuous action in the right circumstances.
For example the word “to rot” you mention, can I still write the teiru form of that to mean “to be rotting” if I’m writing a book or something, though maybe to indicate that someone can see the process I’d add the word “rapidly” so it would be “something is rapidly rotting!”?
In the ておる examples shouldn’t it be just 飲んどる.
てん is often just た in 関西弁：
食べてん = 食べた
言ってた = 言うててん
[source](https://ja.wikibooks.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E9%98%AA%E5%BC%81/%E9%81%8E%E5%8E%BB#%E3%80%8C%E3%81%A6%E3%82%93%E3%80%8D)
>私は毎日、お茶を飲のんどる
Maybe I’m missing something but how is this read?
Why is there a “の” in there?
Also, let me help distinguish between states and ongoing actions.
The difference between stative and active verbs is that stative verbs persist by themselves. Picture a scene in a movie, let’s say a scientist talking about giraffes as he sits down to eat his cereal. Now pause it:
– Is the scientist eating? Not really, since hovering a spoon near your mouth isn’t eating, so 食(た)べている is active.
– Is the scientist sitting down? Yes, so 座(すわ)っている is stative.
– Is the scientist talking? No, his mouth is open but no words are coming out, so 話(はな)している is active.
– Is he wearing his glasses? Yes, they’re still on his face, so かけている is stative.
– Has he finished his cereal? Not yet, and you can tell from a still frame, which is why まだ終(お)わっていない is stative.
Additionally, とる isn’t the only て-form contraction you should look out for. Here are some others:
– とく / とけ / といて = from ておく meaning “to do ahead of time” or “to leave as is”, like 掘(ほ)っとけ (Drop it / Leave me alone)
– てく / てけ / てって = from ていく which can mean “to do and go away” (spatial), “to keep on doing into the future” (temporal), among other things. A good example is the healing spell “痛(いた)いの痛いの飛(と)んでけ!” (Pain, pain, fly [and go] away!)
– ちゃう / ちゃえ / ちゃって = from てしまう, meaning “to do completely/accidentally/suddenly”
– てねぇ = from ていない.
I’m your example, why is 今 (now) not using the kun reading いま, but the on reading こん? Same case for 道 (road), should it not be みち?
Or am I missing something?
Wait did you actually make てform form make sense? I’m currently going through genki and I’m on a part with てform, and it’s been pretty confusing for me I’ve looked up guides and videos but none of them have explained it as clearly as you have imo. Bonus points for using simple words and Kanji that I or someone already my level would already know allowing for a better grasp on the concept. Maybe I’m just slow, but this actually helped me out quite a bit. Thank you!
Can youbexplaina bit more or give some more examples on the part with the characteristics for using ている with things like color, size, shape etc.
One thing that I read in Genki II but I’m not sure if it always holds:
All “action verbs” are transitive verbs (those that take を), while all “change verbs” are intransitive verbs (those that can’t take を).
I think there might be some exceptions though? I’m not sure.
Still confused a little but much less so, thank you!
> and all potential forms with exception of できる are not used with ている。
It’s rare and somewhat more conversational but this does exist! いけてる and 言えてる were formed this way, and you do sometimes also come across forms like 楽しめている especially in spoken Japanese or quotations of speech.
[This paper](http://repository.aitech.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/11133/2875/3/%E7%B4%80%E8%A6%8150%E5%8F%B7%28p46-p52%29.pdf) also gives examples like 皆さんのおかげで私は__歌えてる__んだなって思います and 今日はフォワードの選手がよく__動けている__。
I can’t speak to how ‘correct’ these sound to most speakers ofc. For staying within the realm what’s accepted in Standard Japanese it’s best to avoid these but since your post covers more casual forms as well I thought it’d be worth mentioning!
“brief japanese” 100 lines. Hahaha, just kidding, keep it up, this was very good and informative! Thanks a lot!
Very interesting. I didn’t know おる was originally from a humble form. It is used as いる in Nagasaki ben.
田中のおるけん、タイキックしよ？
Came for the knowledge.
Stayed for the 「お前はもう死んでいる」.
I think that とる is a regional dialect of ている, not related to [居](#fg “お”)る