ている and its relatives: states, progress, and attitude

Once you have the て-form, a whole family of patterns opens up. The most important is 〜ている, and it takes some care to understand because it doesn't mean exactly what English "-ing" means.

て-form + いる describes a state that is going on right now. Which kind of state depends on the verb.

With verbs that take time (eat, read, run, write), it means "is doing".

With verbs that mean a change happens in an instant (open, close, die, marry, arrive, break), ている does not mean "is in the middle of it". It means "has done it, and is now in that state".

Marriage is not a slow process. You got married, and now you are in the state of being married. That is what ている shows with these verbs.

For long-lasting situations and repeated actions:

Notice 住んでいる ("live") and 知っている ("know"). English sees them as states; Japanese says the same thing with ている. Negative of 知っている is 知らない, not 知っていない.

In speech, ている shortens to てる, and ていない to てない:

You will hear and read てる constantly in dialogue, subtitles and manga. It is exactly the same thing.

て-form + ある describes the state of something that someone has done on purpose. The thing is the topic or が, not を.

Compare 窓が開いている (the window is open, it just is) with 窓が開けてある (someone opened it and left it that way). It is the same state, but the second implies somebody did it with a purpose. 〜てある goes with verbs that take an object (開ける).

て-form + おく means "do it ahead of time, in preparation".

It can also mean "do it and leave it". In casual speech it shortens to とく: 買っておく → 買っとく.

て-form + しまう has two uses: you did something completely, or you did something regrettable.

In casual speech it shortens: 〜ちゃう / 〜じゃう (食べちゃう, 読んじゃう). The past, 〜ちゃった, is extremely common in dialogue to express "oops, I did it".

て-form + みる means "try doing it":

This isn't "try hard" (that is 頑張る). It's "do it once and see what happens".

て-form + いく means "keep going away from now", and て-form + くる means "coming toward now". They describe change over time or movement while doing something.

Use くる for "up to now" (a change that has built up until this moment), and いく for "from now on".

Verb patterns like these appear on every page of a novel. You need not know every pattern. When you meet one, find the て-form, then ask what the little helper verb adds: "is", "has been left", "in advance", "oops", "try", "keep going". The helper verb has a real meaning; it's adding colour to the main verb.

ている and its relatives set the scene in stories. Look at what each one tells you about the state of the world.

• 〜ている: in progress for ongoing verbs; result state for sudden-change verbs; habits and situations.
• 〜てある: someone did it on purpose and left it that way.
• 〜ておく: do beforehand. 〜てしまう: finish, or oops.
• 〜てみる: try. 〜ていく / 〜てくる: change heading away from / toward now.
• Casual contractions: てる, ちゃう, とく.