-아/어 있다: Resultant State

Some events happen in an instant but leave a state that lingers. You sit down once, but then you are seated for a while. A door opens in a moment, but then it stands open. Korean has a dedicated aspect for that lingering result: -아/어 있다, the resultant-state construction. It attaches to intransitive change-of-state verbs and says the change is done and its result is still holding. This is the mirror image of the progressive -고 있다, which describes the change unfolding rather than its result.

How to form it

Take the verb stem, add the harmony vowel -아 (if the last stem vowel is ㅏ/ㅗ) or -어 (otherwise) — the same vowel harmony you use for the past tense and the 해요체 present — and then add 있다. Note the gap in the middle: unlike the progressive, there is no 고 here. It is the bare -아/어 connective plus 있다.

Just as with the progressive, 있다 carries the tense and register — the verb before it stays fixed:

For things: results you can see around a room

The construction is not just for people. It is the natural way to describe the settled state of objects — a door left open, a light left on, flowers in bloom, a picture on the wall. Many of these use a passive or intransitive verb, and -아/어 있다 freezes the result in place.

The core contrast: unfolding vs. persisting

Here is the reframing English speakers need. English often uses the same words for the action and its result — "he is sitting" can mean he is lowering himself down or that he is already seated; "the door is opening" vs. "the door is open" at least differ, but "he is standing" is again ambiguous. Korean forces you to choose, and the choice is between two clearly different shapes:

• -고 있다 = the change is unfolding (앉고 있다 = "is in the act of sitting down")
• -아/어 있다 = the change is complete and its result persists (앉아 있다 = "is now seated")

The deeper semantic map — including verbs like 죽다 where the two aspects give "is dying" (죽고 있다) vs. "is dead" (죽어 있다) — is developed by the Tense, Aspect & Mood group. This page is about how to build the resultant state and which verbs accept it.

Which verbs accept -아/어 있다

Not every verb has a resultant state to describe, and this is the restriction that trips learners up. -아/어 있다 wants a verb that produces a durable new state, and that is typically an intransitive change-of-state verb: 앉다 (sit), 서다 (stand), 눕다 (lie down), 남다 (remain), 들어가다 (go in), plus passives like 열리다 (be opened), 켜지다 (be turned on), 걸리다 (be hung).

A plain transitive activity like 읽다 "read" has no such resultant state — reading produces no lingering "read state" you can point at — so you cannot say ×책을 읽어 있다. An ongoing act of reading is the progressive's job: 책을 읽고 있다.

There is a special case worth flagging: a transitive action with an object usually has an intransitive partner that carries the resultant state. You don't say "someone has the door opened"; you say "the door is open." So for results, reach for the intransitive/passive verb and drop the object: 문을 열다 (transitive, "open the door") → 문이 열려 있다 (intransitive result, "the door is open").

Common Mistakes

1. Putting -아/어 있다 on a transitive activity verb. Reading, eating, watching produce no resultant state; use the progressive.

2. Using -고 있다 for a settled state. 앉고 있다 is the motion of sitting down; for "is (already) seated," you need -아/어 있다.

3. Picking the wrong harmony vowel. 앉다 has the bright vowel ㅏ, so it takes -아, not -어.

4. Keeping the transitive verb + object for a result. For "the door is open," Korean uses the intransitive 열리다, not transitive 열다 with an object.

Key Takeaways

• Build it as stem + -아/어 (by harmony) + 있다 — no 고 in the middle — and let 있다 carry tense/register (앉아 있었어요).
• It means the result of a completed change still holds: 앉아 있다 "is seated," 문이 열려 있다 "is open," 불이 켜져 있다 "is on."
• It attaches to intransitive change-of-state verbs (and passives), not to transitive activities — ×읽어 있다; for those use the progressive -고 있다.
• The unfolding-vs-persisting contrast is the whole point: 앉고 있다 (sitting down) vs. 앉아 있다 (seated). The deep semantics live in the Tense, Aspect & Mood group.