Day Twenty Nine: te iru

-te iru and -ing

Alright, so as we’ve gone through a wide variety of sentence construction, you’re probably wondering how to say ‘[verb]-ing’ in Japanese. You know, the -ing verbs such as running, jumping, reading, reading, listening – all ‘ing‘ verbs. All of these verbs are in a current state of action. 

Base Te ＋いる is a verb conjugation that means to be [verb]-ing or to be in a state of action, a state of being, or a process that is currently happening. This grammar principle is predicated on combining the ‘Base Te’ for which can be used for continuation of action and いる which is one of the existence verbs. Combined, they express the idea of continuation or state of the modified verb. 

However, watch out for the conjugation with Base Te since it can vary with different verb endings – like the Japanese verb for reading, yomu, which conjugates in base て form to yonde, which makes the Base Te + iru – yondeiru. Just remember the base combination with Base Te with various verb endings result in varying forms of Base Te: bu, mu, nu = nde; ku = itte; u, ru, tsu = tte; gu = ide; su=shite and so on.

* When using a movement verb like いく、くる　etc. Base て＋いる implies that they have gone and are still there.