ている details
write + (and…) + is doing
kaite iru
is doing; is in the state of having done
meaning: be writing
弟は部屋で音楽を聞いている。
otouto wa heya de ongaku o kiite iru.
My little brother is listening to music in his room. neutral
あ、電気ついてるよ。消すの忘れた？
a, denki tsuiteru yo. kesu no wasureta?
Oh, the light's on. Did you forget to turn it off? casual
- contraction
- formal
- past
- polite
- negative
Examples
is doing — an action in progress right now
弟は部屋で音楽を聞いている。
otouto wa heya de ongaku o kiiteiru.
My little brother is listening to music in his room. neutral
今、雨降ってるよ。
ima, ame futteru yo.
It's raining right now. casual
田中はただいま別の電話に出ております。
tanaka wa tadaima betsu no denwa ni dete orimasu.
Tanaka is on another call at the moment. formal
is in the state of having done — a change happened and its result still holds
あ、電気ついてるよ。消すの忘れた？
a, denki tsuiteru yo. kesu no wasureta?
Oh, the light's on. Did you forget to turn it off? casual
姉は結婚していて、大阪に住んでいる。
ane wa kekkon shite ite, oosaka ni sunde iru.
My older sister is married and lives in Osaka. neutral
Formation
{V-te}いるattaches to て-form
Variant notes
- てる — い drops in speech at every politeness level — 何[なに]してる？, 知ってます. The written standard keeps the い.
- ておる — humble/formal おる replaces いる — ております is the business-Japanese default (確認しております).
Notes
Related patterns
Similar
窓が開いている just reports the state; 窓が開けてある adds a deliberate agent who left it that way — てある demands a transitive verb, ている takes any verb at all.
Both report a persisting result-state, but ている views it from inside as the current situation (窓が開いている), while たまま marks it as background deliberately-or-negligently left unchanged while something else happens — and たまま alone carries the "should have been undone" flavor.
Lookalikes
食べているところだ narrows ている to one pinpointed "right now" — the habitual and resultative readings vanish, and duration adverbs like ずっと sit fine with ている but clash with ところだ.
The two stack in 走り続けている, which betrays the split — 続ける keeps the activity itself going and takes tense like any verb, while ている only views an event from inside; plain states take ている freely (住んでいる), and 続ける often adds a flavor of persisting (住み続ける can imply reasons to leave).