Beyond the progressive ("is doing right now") and the resultant state ("has done and remains"), 〜ている has two more everyday jobs that the overview groups together as its third meaning: describing a habit or repeated action (毎日走っている "runs every day") and stating a standing fact of your life — your occupation, your residence, your ongoing situation (銀行で働いている "works at a bank," 東京に住んでいる "lives in Tokyo"). These are the forms you'll use to introduce yourself and talk about your life, so they earn their own page — and they hide a genuine trap for English speakers, because here ている is not optional. It's the default.
Habitual and repeated action
Pair ている with a time expression of frequency — 毎日 ("every day"), 毎朝 ("every morning"), 週に三回 ("three times a week"), いつも ("always") — and it stops meaning "right now" and starts meaning "as a matter of routine, over this period of my life."
健康のために、毎朝ジョギングをしている。
kenkō no tame ni, maiasa jogingu o shite iru
I go jogging every morning for my health.
今、週に三回、日本語を勉強している。
ima, shū ni sankai, nihongo o benkyō shite iru
I'm studying Japanese three times a week these days.
うちでは、犬を二匹飼っている。
uchi de wa, inu o nihiki katte iru
We keep two dogs at home.
None of these is happening at the moment of speaking. 毎朝ジョギングをしている doesn't mean you're jogging as you say it — it means jogging is part of your current life. The ている marks it as a live, ongoing habit of the present period, as opposed to a one-off or a bygone one. (飼っている "keep (a pet)" is the standard way to say you have a pet — a durative caretaking that continues.)
Jobs, residence, and standing situations
This is the high-value use. To state what you do for a living, where you live, or any settled ongoing situation, Japanese uses ている. It's how you answer "What do you do?" and "Where do you live?"
兄はトヨタで働いている。
ani wa toyota de hataraite iru
My older brother works at Toyota.
今、東京に住んでいます。
ima, tōkyō ni sunde imasu
I live in Tokyo now.
父は高校で数学を教えています。
chichi wa kōkō de sūgaku o oshiete imasu
My father teaches math at a high school.
姉は看護師として、大きな病院で働いている。
ane wa kangoshi to shite, ōkina byōin de hataraite iru
My older sister works as a nurse at a big hospital.
働いている, 住んでいる, 教えている here don't describe an action in progress or even a today-only habit — they state a fact about your life that holds across a stretch of time: this is my job, this is where I live, this is what I do. This is exactly the English "I work at / I live in / I teach" of a self-introduction.
The trap: the plain verb doesn't mean your current job
Here is the error English speakers make constantly, and it's worth stopping on. In English, "I work at a bank" is a plain present-tense statement, so learners reach for the plain Japanese 働く — and produce a sentence that means something they didn't intend.
❌ 銀行で働く。
ginkō de hataraku
As 'I work at a bank' this misfires — 働く reads as 'I will work' or a generic statement, not your present job.
✅ 銀行で働いている。
ginkō de hataraite iru
I work at a bank. (my current, standing job)
The plain non-past 働く can only mean "I will work" (I'm about to start a job, or I'll work tomorrow) or a generic truth ("people work to earn money"). It cannot state your current employment. Likewise 住む, on its own, describes a future move ("I'm going to live there"), never where you live now. So choosing the plain form here doesn't just sound off — it quietly says the wrong thing. If someone asks どこに住んでいますか and you answer 東京に住む, you've told them you're planning to move to Tokyo.
来年から大阪に住む。
rainen kara ōsaka ni sumu
I'm going to live in Osaka starting next year. (a future move → plain 住む)
今は大阪に住んでいる。
ima wa ōsaka ni sunde iru
Right now I live in Osaka. (current residence → 住んでいる)
Why these all belong together
You might wonder how one form covers "is running right now," "runs every day," and "works at a bank." The unifying idea is that ている marks a situation as holding at the present time rather than being a bounded, complete, or merely future event. A single action can hold right now (progressive), a habit can hold across your current life (habitual), a job can hold as your standing circumstance (occupation). Grammatically, note that 住んでいる and 働いている lean on the resultant-state logic — you took up residence, you took a job, and the result continues — while 毎日走っている leans on the repeated-action logic. But for a learner, the practical takeaway is one clean rule: your life's standing facts and routines take ている.
Register note
For introductions, the polite 〜ています (住んでいます, 働いています) is the natural register with people you've just met; the plain 〜ている is for friends and family. In casual speech both commonly contract to 〜てる (住んでる, 働いてる) — see the casual contraction. One more, more formal, wrinkle: humble/formal writing and speech may use 〜ておる (おります) — 東京に住んでおります is a polite, humble "I live in Tokyo" you'll hear in service settings and formal self-introductions. (formal / humble)
現在、貿易会社に勤めております。
genzai, bōeki-gaisha ni tsutomete orimasu
I currently work for a trading company. (formal / humble register)
Common mistakes
❌ どこに住みますか。
doko ni sumimasu ka
As 'Where do you live?' this is wrong — it asks where you'll live; current residence uses 住んでいますか.
✅ どこに住んでいますか。
doko ni sunde imasu ka
Where do you live?
❌ 姉は病院で働く。
ane wa byōin de hataraku
As 'my sister works at a hospital' this misfires — 働く reads as future/generic; her current job is 働いている.
✅ 姉は病院で働いている。
ane wa byōin de hataraite iru
My sister works at a hospital.
❌ 毎朝、ジョギングをする。今もしている。
maiasa, jogingu o suru. ima mo shite iru
Mismatched — for a current habit ('I jog every morning'), 毎朝ジョギングをしている is the natural form, not the plain する.
✅ 毎朝、ジョギングをしている。
maiasa, jogingu o shite iru
I go jogging every morning. (a current habit)
❌ 父は数学を教える。（今の仕事として）
chichi wa sūgaku o oshieru (ima no shigoto to shite)
As 'my father teaches math (for a living)' this is wrong — his standing profession is 教えている.
✅ 父は数学を教えている。
chichi wa sūgaku o oshiete iru
My father teaches math (for a living).
Key takeaways
- ている also marks a current habit (毎日走っている "runs every day") and a standing life fact — job, residence, situation (働いている, 住んでいる, 教えている).
- For occupation and residence, ている is the default: it is the English "I work / I live / I teach."
- The plain form means a future move or a generic statement, not your present situation: 住む = "will move there," 働く = "will work." Answering どこに住んでいますか with plain 住む says you're planning to move.
- These grow from the same root as the other meanings — ている marks a situation as holding now rather than being complete or merely future.
- Register: 〜ています (polite), 〜ている (plain), 〜てる (casual), 〜ております／おります (formal/humble).
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Start learning Japanese→Related Topics
- 〜ている: Progressive 'Be Doing'N4 — The progressive 〜ている for an action in progress right now (本を読んでいる 'is reading') — the closest thing to the English present continuous, and why Japanese refuses the plain 読む for what English calls 'am reading.'
- 〜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.
- 〜ている: The Two-Meaning Aspect MarkerN4 — 〜ている carries two meanings — the progressive 'is doing' and the resultant state 'has done and remains' — and the verb's own aktionsart, not the speaker, decides which one you get.
- 〜てる: The Casual Contraction of ているN4 — How spoken Japanese drops the い of ている to give 〜てる, and how that い-deletion runs systematically through the whole paradigm (〜てる／〜てた／〜てない／〜てて).