Describing the state left after an action in Japanese

Level A2

Describing the state left after an action in Japanese

You reach a friend's house and the door is open. Nobody is opening it: it opened earlier, and you are looking at the result. Japanese says this with a form that looks like 今食べています (ima tabete imasu), “I'm eating now”, but here it isn't about an action in progress. In this lesson you say what you see, ask about it and tell the two meanings apart.

Warm-up: が, the て form and います

Three pieces come back today, even if this is your first time seeing them together. あ、猫がいます (a, neko ga imasu) is “oh, there's a cat”: が (ga) comes after the thing you noticed, and あ (a) is the “oh” of someone who has just noticed it.

今食べています (ima tabete imasu) is “I'm eating now”, and 今飲んでいます (ima nonde imasu) is “I'm drinking now”. 食べて and 飲んで are the て forms of 食べる (taberu), “to eat”, and 飲む (nomu), “to drink”, and います after them shows the action in progress.

The て form also links actions: パンを食べて、コーヒーを飲みます (pan o tabete, kōhī o nomimasu) is “I eat bread and drink coffee”. Today it takes on one more job.

New words

ドア (doa) is a door and 窓 (mado) is a window. 開く (aku) means “to open”, but it is what the door or window itself does: ドアが開く, “the door opens”. The sentence doesn't say who opened it. When someone opens a door, Japanese uses a different verb; pairs of verbs like this have a lesson of their own, and you don't need that one here. The kanji 開 can have another reading, but in this lesson 開く is always あく (aku).

Model: on the phone, at Ana's house

Listen once without reading. Someone stops by Ana's house and reports over the phone. ドア and 窓 come with 開いています, and Ana comes with 食べています. The ending is the same, but compare the scenes: nobody is moving the door, while Ana really is eating. アナさんはいますか (Ana-san wa imasu ka) is “is Ana there?”: with no て form before it, います says that a person or animal is in a place.

From the change to what stays

Start with the forms of 開く: 開きます (akimasu), 開きました (akimashita) and the て form 開いて (aite). In verbs ending in く, く usually becomes いて, as it does here; 行く → 行って (iku → itte) is the well-known exception.

Now read the three lines as a timeline. ドアが開きます: the change is still to come, as in a train announcement before the doors open. ドアが開きました: it has happened. ドアが開いています: it happened earlier and the door is still open, and that is what you see now. Here ています shows what stayed after the change.

Saying what you see: 〜が開いています

Name the thing, add が and finish with 開いています (aite imasu). English says “is open”, with an adjective; Japanese keeps the verb. Swap ドア for 窓 and the rest of the sentence stays the same.

To ask, add か (ka): ドアが開いていますか？ Answer はい、開いています or いいえ、開いていません (iie, aite imasen): います becomes いません, just as 食べます becomes 食べません. ドア can drop out of the answer, since it's already clear what you're talking about. With も (mo), “too”, も takes the place of が: 窓も開いていますか？

〜が開いています（か）

One form, two meanings in this lesson

今食べています and ドアが開いています end the same way and say different things. 食べる is an action that takes time: 今食べています says you are in the middle of it. 開く is a change: in an ordinary scene, ドアが開いています says the door has already opened and is still open, not that it's moving.

So don't turn ています into “-ing” every time: “the door is opening” and “the door is open” are different scenes, and 開いています is normally the second one.

今 doesn't settle it: 今、窓が開いています (ima, mado ga aite imasu) is still “the window is open now”, a state, not a movement. The verb and the scene settle it: other verbs of change work like 開く, and ています has other uses you'll meet little by little.

Your turn, and the summary

Imagine you have just reached a meeting room, and a colleague calls to ask how things are. Cover the lines below and say each one aloud before checking. First, say that the door is open. Then your colleague asks: is the window open too? Say yes. Last, say that Ana is eating bread now.

Check yourself: which line is about someone in the middle of an action? Only the last one.

In short: 〜が開いています gives the state that stayed after the door or window opened; 今食べています gives an action in progress. The construction is the same; the verb and the scene show which meaning you have.

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