You already know ある as "there is (an inanimate thing)." Bolted onto a te-form, it becomes something richer: 〜てある describes a state that somebody deliberately created and left that way. 窓が開けてある does not merely say "the window is open" — it says "the window has been opened, by someone, on purpose, and it's still open." The English that fits is a purposeful passive: has been X-ed (and left ready). This form is how Japanese quietly credits an unseen human agent for setting a scene up.
窓が開けてある。
mado ga akete aru
The window has been opened (on purpose, by someone).
ホテルの予約がしてあるから、心配しないで。
hoteru no yoyaku ga shite aru kara, shinpai shinaide
The hotel reservation has been made, so don't worry.
The recipe, and the が that trips everyone up
The build is: transitive verb → te-form → ある. 開ける (to open, transitive) → 開けて → 開けてある.
But there is a grammatical twist that catches every learner. The thing that was, in the plain sentence, the direct object (marked を) becomes the subject (marked が or は) in the 〜てある sentence:
| Plain transitive | → 〜てある |
|---|---|
| 窓を開ける (open the window) | 窓が開けてある (the window has been opened) |
| 予約をする (make a reservation) | 予約がしてある (a reservation has been made) |
| ビールを冷やす (chill beer) | ビールが冷やしてある (the beer has been chilled) |
Why the shift? Because 〜てある turns the spotlight away from the action and onto the resulting state of the thing. The window is no longer what you're acting on — it's what you're describing. So it graduates from object to subject, and を becomes が. This is exactly the subject-marking job of が.
冷蔵庫にビールが冷やしてあるよ。
reizōko ni bīru ga hiyashite aru yo
There's beer chilling in the fridge (I put it there to cool).
壁に大きな絵がかけてある。
kabe ni ōkina e ga kakete aru
A large painting has been hung on the wall.
The meaning: someone did it, on purpose, for a reason
The heart of 〜てある is intent left visible. It never describes an accident or a natural event. It always implies: a person performed this transitive action deliberately, typically as preparation, and the result is still in place for you to notice or benefit from. That "set up for a purpose" flavor is baked in.
Compare the feel:
- 電気がついている — the light is on (neutral observation; who knows why).
- 電気がつけてある — someone turned the light on on purpose and left it (e.g., so you'd find your way in).
黒板に明日の予定が書いてある。
kokuban ni ashita no yotei ga kaite aru
Tomorrow's schedule is written on the blackboard (someone wrote it up for us).
テーブルに料理がきれいに並べてある。
tēburu ni ryōri ga kirei ni narabete aru
The dishes have been laid out neatly on the table.
ドアに「引く」と書いてある。
doa ni 'hiku' to kaite aru
It says 'pull' on the door.
That last one is everyday: signs, labels, and notices are described with 書いてある precisely because someone wrote them there on purpose for readers to see. English "it says…" is the natural translation.
〜てある and 〜ておく: two sides of preparation
〜てある is intimately tied to 〜ておく ("do X in advance, in preparation"). Think of them as before-and-after:
- 〜ておく = the act of preparing: 予約しておいた "I went ahead and made the reservation."
- 〜てある = the resulting state of that preparation: 予約がしてある "the reservation is made (and stands ready)."
So when you do the prep you use 〜ておく, and when you later describe the readiness you use 〜てある. They're covered together on 〜ておく vs 〜てある.
切符はもう買ってあるので、並ばなくて大丈夫です。
kippu wa mō katte aru node, narabanakute daijōbu desu
The tickets are already bought, so we don't need to queue.
会議の資料は人数分コピーしてあります。
kaigi no shiryō wa ninzūbun kopī shite arimasu
The meeting materials have been copied for everyone. (polite)
English comparison: a passive that hides the agent
English has no single form that means all of this. The closest is the passive "has been opened / is prepared," but English can, and often does, name the agent ("has been opened by the janitor"). Japanese 〜てある goes the other way: it deliberately leaves the agent unstated. You know a person did it — that's the whole point — but who, is neither said nor asked. The result is a tidy way to describe a prepared scene while keeping the doer offstage. (When you do want an explicit agent and a true passive event, that's the 〜られる passive, a different construction.)
Common mistakes
❌ 窓が開いてある。
Incorrect — 開く is intransitive and cannot take てある. Use the transitive 開けてある, or the intransitive 開いている.
✅ 窓が開けてある。
mado ga akete aru
The window has been opened (on purpose).
❌ 窓を開けてある。
Incorrect — with 〜てある the former object becomes the subject and takes が, not を.
✅ 窓が開けてある。
mado ga akete aru
The window has been opened.
❌ 台風で木が倒してある。
Incorrect — a typhoon knocking a tree down is not deliberate; てある requires human intent. Use the intransitive 倒れている.
✅ 台風で木が倒れている。
taifū de ki ga taorete iru
A tree is down because of the typhoon.
❌ 予約をしてあります、だから安心してください。
Awkward — keep 予約 as the subject with が/は: 予約がしてあります / 予約はしてあります.
✅ 予約はしてありますので、ご安心ください。
yoyaku wa shite arimasu node, goanshin kudasai
The reservation has been made, so please rest assured. (polite)
The two big traps: (1) transitivity — 〜てある demands a transitive verb (開ける, する, 書く, 冷やす), because it credits an agent's action; an intransitive verb (開く, 倒れる) describes a state with no doer and must take 〜ている instead. (2) the が shift — because the object becomes the subject, を…てある is almost always a mistake.
Key takeaways
- 〜てある = transitive verb + ある, describing a state someone deliberately created and left in place.
- It always implies a human agent acting on purpose, usually as preparation — a "set up for a reason" flavor entirely absent from neutral 〜ている.
- The object of the verb becomes the subject and takes が (or は): 窓を開ける → 窓が開けてある.
- The agent stays unnamed — Japanese hides the doer while making the intent unmistakable.
- Pair it with 〜ておく (do in advance) — the act — of which 〜てある is the standing result.
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- 〜ている vs 〜てある: Intransitive vs Transitive ResultN3 — The classic minimal pair — intransitive verb + ている (a neutral 'it is in state X') vs transitive verb + てある ('someone put it in state X on purpose') — and how the choice both tracks verb transitivity and foregrounds or hides an agent.
- 〜ている: Resultant State 'Has Done & Remains'N4 — The resultant-state 〜ている for change-of-state verbs — 結婚している 'is married,' 死んでいる 'is dead,' 窓が開いている 'is open' — where the action already finished and its result still holds now.
- 〜ておく vs 〜てある: Act vs Resulting StateN3 — Two sides of one event — 〜ておく narrates the act of preparing something in advance, while 〜てある describes the state that preparation leaves standing, with a telling を→が particle shift.
- が: The Subject MarkerN5 — How が marks the grammatical subject — presenting new information, answering 'who/what?', and marking the が-object of stative predicates like 好き, 分かる, and できる.