Lesson 58
Te Form + iru
A verb's te form with iru is used to show present progressive tense. This is probably the most used verb form of them all, and provides an important grammatical base from which many other relevant forms can be made. Iru by itself is an ichidan verb meaning "to be; to exist," and when connected to another verb using the Te Form means "to be doing (something)." So, in a way, it works like English, but thankfully unlike English doesn't change according to the subject. Look at these examples:
- Watashi wa koko ni iru. (I am here.)
- Watashi wa aruite iru. (I am walking.)
- Karera wa zasshi o yonde iru. (They are reading a magazine.)
- Watashitachi wa Takamatsu ni sunde iru. (We live in Takamatsu. [We are living in Takamatsu.])
- Shizuko wa tabete iru. (Shizuko is eating.)
- Kanojo wa sushi o tabete iru. (She is eating sushi.)
- Bill wa nihongo o benkyou shite iru. (Bill is studying Japanese.)
These examples should help you get a good idea as to how this form works. Note how Japanese is more "grammatically true" than English in some cases, like when using the verb sumu (to live [somewhere]), as in the fourth example above. Even though living in a place is present and progressive, we can get away with using just "live" in English. Because of this, it is natural for foreigners to slip and directly translate that to sumu in Japanese, when they really should use sunde iru.
Another easy slip for foreigners is the simple phrase "I know." When someone tries in English to dazzle us with some bit of information we've already heard, we say "I know," but in Japanese we say shitte iru (literally, "I'm knowing [it]."), and not shiru. When you stop making this mistake you'll know that you're starting to think in Japanese.
Since iru is a plain ichidan verb, it can be conjugated as such and some of the other endings applied. Especially important are masu, mashita, masen, and masen deshita, which were covered in the Base 2 endings. As you already know, these are polite endings and should be used in all but familiar settings.
Let's review these through some Te Form examples:
- Watashi wa shimbun o yonde imasu. (I'm reading the newspaper.)
- Kinou nete imashita. (Yesterday I slept all day. [Yesterday I was sleeping all day.])
- Kare wa furansugo o benkyou shite imasen. (He's not studying French.)
- Kyou terebi o mite imasen deshita. (I didn't watch TV today. [I wasn't watching TV today.])
It should be mentioned here that the Japanese use the past progressive tense much more than we use it in English. For example, in English we would normally ask a person, "What did you do last night?" and not "What were you doing last night?" In Japanese it's the opposite. It's common to use the past progressive tense: Sakuban nani o shite imashita ka. (What were you doing last night?) Accordingly, the answer will be in the same tense: Terebi o mite imashita. (I was watching TV.)
Another thing that needs to be mentioned about the Te Form + iru is that it is often "slurred" together. For example, yonde iru (reading) will sound like yonderu. In fact, it is even written this way — with the i in iru omitted — in comics and novels where the writer wants to show characters using everyday conversational Japanese.
Finally, this form also plays a vital role in sentences where a relative pronoun would be used in English:
- Tennis o shite iru ko wa Bob no imouto desu. (The kid [who is] playing tennis is Bob's [younger] sister.)
- Sunahama de asonde iru inu wa boku no desu. (The dog [that's] playing on the beach is mine.)
I know you're wondering, so I'll tell you: "to play; to do" (shite iru) should sound like SHTEH-EERU or SHTERU; "to know" (shitte iru) should sound like SHEET-TEH-EERU or SHEET-TERU. Listening carefully becomes the best teacher here.
We'll take a look at some useful negative forms of this in the next lesson.
Word Check
aruku: to walk
karera: they, them
zasshi: magazine
sumu: to live (somewhere)
nihongo: the Japanese language
shiru: to know
neru: to sleep
sakuban: last night
nani: what
suru: to play a sport or game; to do (something)
ko: kid, child 1
imouto: little (younger) sister 2
sunahama: beach
asobu: to play (without any particular purpose or object, as a small child or animal does)
inu: dog
boku: I (familiar form used by males)
(Verbs are shown in their plain form.)
Notes
1. Strangely, there is no single, simple word in Japanese for "girl" or "boy." The correct way to say "girl" is onna no ko and "boy" is otoko no ko (literally, "woman-child" / "man-child"). These can be shortened to ko in many situations, but, like "kid" in English, there may be times when this will not be appreciated if used in front of the parents.
2. In Japanese, different words are used for older siblings than younger ones: ani for older brother, ane for older sister, otouto for younger brother, and imouto for younger sister.
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