Japanese Verb Rules - Conjunctive Form

~て Conjunctive form with いる

The Conjunctive form of a verb is used with another element to form a meaningful unit. In this exercise, we will learn the combination of the Conjunctive form of a verb and the verb いる, which expresses continuous action or state.

How to derive the Conjunctive form:

Group 1: Change the final る to て
Group 2: When the final syllable is
く, change it to いて
ぐ, change it to いで
す, change it to して
む, ぬ, or ぶ, change it to んで
つ, る, or う, change it to って
Exception: いく (to go) →いって
Group 3: くる→きて、する→して

How to use the form:

The Conjunctive form of the verb よむ, which means "to read", is よんで, so when you add いる to this form, the newly-formed verb phrase is よんでいる. This phrase can have the following two meanings.

いま	おも	しろ		ほん		よ
今、	面	白	い	本	を	読	んでいます。

'I am reading an interesting book now.' OR 'I have been reading an interesting book now.'

When the verb in the Conjunctive form cannot express repeated action, then ている describes a continuing state rather than an ongoing action.

	ひと		お
あの	人	はもう	起	きています。

'That person has been awake [=that person is already up].'

くるま		と
車	が	止	まっています。

'The car stopped (and it is there now).'

When the verb is already stative, the Conjunctive form is not used with いる. For instance, you may not say お金（かね）があっています to mean "I have money."　This is because the verb ある ("have") is stative. The same is true with other stative verbs such as いる　("need") and いる ("exist").