“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.” – Will Durant
You’ve been looking at て-form for a while, but now it’s time for the mother-load. This is what て-form is all about, in my opinion. This is what you’ve been working up to: て-form gives you the ability to use progressive verbs.
So what does this mean? Look at these two similar sentences.
a すしを食べます。
I will eat sushi.
a すしを食べています。
I am eating sushi.
Do you see the て-form in there? Do you see the difference in meanings? With a progressive verb, an action is taking place… like, right now. It’s the difference between “to eat” and “eating” in English. It’s all about the -ing.
ています
To use progressive form in Japanese, though, you have to learn 〜ています. Hopefully this shouldn’t be too bad, since it’s all things you’ve seen before.
First off, there’s て-form, which you’ve been focusing a lot on, lately.
Then, there’s います added to the end. Think of it like you’re adding life to the end of the verb. います refers to having something that’s alive and moving… well, this verb is alive too, now, because you added います to the end. It’s moving, it’s happening, and it’s alivvvveee.
て-form + います
Neutral / formal
て-form + いる
Casual
Really, there’s nothing new here – you just have to put the puzzle pieces together.
Practicing This
Let’s start by looking at some words – not even sentences yet. I want to make sure you can convert all these verbs to progressive form before you do something more complicated. Bear with me, here.
食べる (to eat) → 食べている (eating)
入る (to enter) → 入っている (entering)
話す (to speak) → ?
帰る (to return) → ?
思う (to think) → ?
投げる (to throw) → ?
来る (to come) → ?
作る (to make) → ?
扱う (to handle) → ?
休む (to rest) → ?
Make sure you’re able to convert all of these verbs over to progressive form. It shouldn’t be difficult if you’re comfortable in て-form. Go ahead and convert them again using the neutral/formal version of progressive form now. Want more practice? Try to recall verbs you’ve learned in the past (from memory) and convert those too.
Note: Also Works With Continuing Conditions
One thing about progressive verbs is that it’s not just things you’re doing right now, so to speak. Sometimes they are states that you’re in. For example, if you’re married, you would say けっこんしています (marriage is a verb state that continues as long as you’re married). If a door is open, you might say 戸口があいています (the door is in an opening state). Examples like this aren’t as common as straight up “doing” sentences, but it is a really good thing to know as you continue to study your Japanese, so keep an eye out.