Page 198 - Basic Japanese

Watashi wa Nihon ni imasu. I am

in Japan.

In Lesson 3, we found that a gerund (te-form) plus the
verb iru means ‘(somebody or something) is doing

something’:

“Ima okāsan wa nani o shite iru no?”
“What is your mother doing now?”

“Tonari no obasan to shabette iru yo.”
“She is chatting with the woman next-door.”

With intransitive verbs—those that do not ordinarily take
a direct object, like ‘goes, comes, gets tired, gets cloudy,
clears up, becomes,’ there is another meaning for GERUND +

iru. With intransitive verbs denoting a single, specific act,

like ‘gets to be something, becomes, goes, comes, changes
(into),’ the most usual meaning of this construction is the
present RESULT of an action that has ALREADY taken place.

So tsukarete imasu usually doesn’t mean ‘is getting tired,’ but

more often it means just ‘is tired’ (is in a state resulting
from having become tired). The idea is that you got tired
and then exist.

Ima tsukarete imasu kara ato ni shite kudasai.

I’m tired now, so could we do it later?

Ani wa mō kekkon shite imasu.

My big brother is already married.